The Black Wolf Diner
by DayDreamsAndStarLights
Summary: Hydrangea "Harry" Potter just wanted to escape after the war that took so much from her, picking up roots to New York where she'd hopefully find a little peace and quiet. Tony Stark has hit rock bottom, broken hearted and at the end of his rope, he needs a little something to hold on too. What happens when witch meets superhero? Perhaps these two are just what each other needed.
1. A Little bit of Kindness

Disclaimer; I do not own Marvel, all characters and likenesses belong to and are creation of Stan Lee, nor do I own Harry Potter, all characters and likenesses belong to and are creation of J.K Rowling.

A/N: So this is something random that popped into my head at 2 am while I was playing an old Harry Potter game on PS2 and I decided, why not?

This is just an introductory chapter, nothing really exciting happens and it's mostly narrative, but I hope you guys enjoy it!

—

 **Chapter 1: A Little Bit of Kindness.**

The first thought Tony Stark had upon waking was; fuck, everything hurts, quickly followed by, where the hell am I?

Soon sensation returned, the splitting headache pounding behind his closed eyes, the cotton dry feeling in his mouth, the aches and stiffness in his limbs and joints, and the horrible pain coming from his right hand and wrist.

Tony groaned and reluctantly opened his eyes slowly, adjusting to the late morning sun filtering in through the partially closed curtains of a large bay window.

He turned his head, quickly stopping the motion when it triggered a violent urge to vomit, pausing to wait for the sensation to pass, he took a few deep breaths, his mind becoming more alert.

Moving slowly so as not to feel sick, he sat up, taking in his surroundings. Tony found himself lying on a large plush bed, surrounded by pillows and blankets, the unknown bedroom he was in was large, the expansive space decorated in soft beiges and warm neutral browns with white accents.

A door open to the left showed white linoleum flooring; the ensuite bathroom most likely, while a shut door had to be a closet, there was a beautiful eight drawer dresser on the far wall opposite the bed, and underneath the bay window was an oddly placed, beat up trunk with the initials H.P engraved on it.

Frowning Tony twisted his head this way and that, there were no clothes scattered across the floor and no telling aroma of sexual musk in the air, where ever he was, it clearly had nothing to do with a one night stand.

More awake, and more aware, Tony threw back the unbelievably comfortable duvet and swung his legs over the side of the bed, pausing when he realized the clothes he was wearing were most definitely not his.

"The hell?" He rasped, throat feeling like sandpaper, gone was the black sabbath t-shirt he knew he'd been wearing when he left the tower, as well as his jeans, in their place was an overly large hand knitted sweater with the initial H on it, and a pair of loose fitting track pants; appropriate clothing considering the frigid October weather outside. A clean bandage on his right hand gave some explanation to the pain originating from the appendage.

"The fuck am I?" he mused aloud in a raspy whisper, haltingly making his way to his feet, the overwhelming urge to vomit had now been replaced with the overwhelming urge to urinate, and deciding to blow all caution to the wind he stumblingly made his way over to the ensuite.

After relieving himself, and splashing some cold water on his face, using a ridiculously soft towel, seriously, whoever lived here had great taste, the towels had a higher thread count than his own! He glanced around the new room.

The bathroom was well kept, almost eerily clean, it came with a stand alone shower and step down soak tub, the vanity was polished black and white marble and the holder beside the sink proudly boasted a single toothbrush and a solitary tube of ordinary toothpaste.

Ever the curious being, Tony opened the cupboards, finding nothing of interest, just the usual things one would find in any bathroom.

He stood up from his crouched position and began rifling through the storage unit off the side of the vanity, this foray into invading another's privacy yielded better results.

The storage was made of three drawers; the first, an abundance of cosmetics, from high end stores, brands he recognized from when he gave them as gifts to the female persons in his life. The second drawer had hair products, a blow dryer, flat iron, hair ties, and clips. The last drawer carried womanly products, he quickly shut that drawer.

So, he pondered, he was clearly in an apartment belonging to a woman, a single one at that given the lonely toothbrush. That was one small part of the mystery solved, but how had he gotten here, and what had happened the night before, still remained to be seen.

He couldn't remember anything other than the argument he'd gotten into with the rest of the team yesterday afternoon, followed by the blindsiding break up Pepper dropped on him, and then leaving the tower shortly after that devastating event.

He remembered hitting up a few bars, drinking an alarming amount, and that was it, nothing after that.

Frowning heavily, Tony made his way back into the bedroom, he plopped himself down onto the plush bed, with a heavy sigh, dropping his pounding head into his hands. This was not going to go over well; he didn't know where he was, how far he'd gone, who knew where his clothes were, and that was kind of important given his wallet and phone would be in his pants pocket, not too mention if anyone saw him, which let's face it, they mostly likely did, then there'd probably be pictures of his drunken self plastered everywhere.

Tony groaned lowly, this was a shit storm waiting to happen, he thought miserably, lifting his head with a breath of resignation. A sudden clatter followed by a muffled voice exclaiming caused him to startle.

It seemed he wasn't as alone in the apartment as he thought, he stood up and made his way to the door, pulling it open to reveal a brightly lit hallway, he winced as the light assaulted his sensitive eyes, but the pain of retreating back into the bedroom was overruled by the amazing scent of freshly brewed coffee wafting down the hall.

Steeling himself, he began trekking down the lavish hardwood floor and exited out into an open concept living area, there was a giant L shaped couch set tucked into the corner, sat in front of it was an extravagant entertainment system, a coffee table and a single end table completed the picture of the living room, which slowly bled into the kitchen area.

An island made up most of the space, acting as both food prep and dining area as there was no table, a double oven was built into the wall, and on the countertop sat the source of the familiar smell; a coffee machine with a brand new untouched pot of coffee.

"Oh!" Tony jumped, not hearing the woman, for it was clearly a woman's voice that made the sound, come up behind him.

He spun round on his heels and blinked in surprise, she was tiny. He wasn't a tall man by average means, in fact he wore lifts in his shoes to appear taller, but he was currently barefoot and this woman's head barely came up to his chin.

"I'm glad you're awake" the woman said with a friendly smile and with a distinct British accent, delicate hand rising to push back thick raven locks that had fallen from the messy bun the rest of her hair had been wrangled into.

"You gave me quite the scare, you know," she admonished gently, moving around him and into the kitchenette, her impossibly bright emerald eyes glinting at him.

"uh yea, hi…" Tony rumbled off, watching the nymph of a woman bustle about the kitchen, placing milk, cream, sugar, and a steaming mug of coffee at the island, gesturing him to come sit.

Stranger things have happened, and will probably continue too, so with a shrug Tony sat at the island on a bar stool and fixed his coffee the way he liked it.

The woman chattered on, her voice oddly husky but in a sensual way, and her tone warm and welcoming, "I'm sorry" Tony interrupted as she placed a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon in front of him several minutes later, "but uh, who are you and where the hell am I?"

The woman paused, green eyes blinking wide, "you don't remember last night do you? or better I say, early this morning." Tony slowly shook his head 'no', the woman coughed lightly, clearing her throat, "well my name is Hydrangea, but everyone calls me Harry, and you're in my apartment above the diner I own."

Tony nodded, "okay, so how did I end up in your apartment, above the diner you own?" The woman gave a weak laugh, "well one of my espresso machines decided to breakdown so I was up late fixing it, we were well past closing time, I mean it was 2 in the morning and you started banging on the window, ended up putting your hand right through it, luckily you missed any major veins and arteries," she explained gesturing to his neatly bandaged right hand.

"You ended up climbing in through the window and proceeded to ask for the nectar of the gods for it was your only reason to remain in this world, before promptly passing out." She finished.

There was a beat of silence before Tony groaned dramatically, fork clattering against the plate as he dropped it, "shit!" He muttered, running hands over his tired face.

The woman, Harry, chuckled, "it's alright, I'm just glad you're okay," Tony groaned again, "I'm sorry about the window, I'll pay to have it fixed" he promised, finally removing his hands from his face and glancing up at her.

Harry waved a dismissive hand at him, "no worries, it's already taken care of," she informed him cheerily, "now eat up, you need to regain some strength." Not knowing what else to do, Tony reclaimed his fork and methodically began shovelling food into his mouth.

It tasted amazing, even through the sand paper texture of his mouth, hands down the best bacon and eggs he ever had. At some point Harry had disappeared down the hall, returning just as he cleaned his plate of food, "here," she called holding out a bundle.

He instantly recognized his clothes, freshly washed and folded neatly, with his wallet and phone resting on top of the pile. "I'm afraid your phone's dead though, but if you need to call someone to come get you, I have one you can use" Harry said smiling down at him.

Tony stood, accepting the clothes from her, with a small thank you, "you really didn't have too, I appreciate it." Harry shrugged, "I don't do things because I have too; I do them because I want too." She explained softly, reaching around him for his plate which she promptly took to the sink and rinsed off before placing it in the dishwasher.

Fifteen minutes later and a call for Happy to come pick him up, found Tony back in his own clothes, and remarkably relieved to find his shoes had also survived what ever he'd gotten into the night before and were waiting for him by the front door.

Harry was kind enough to lead him out of the apartment once he saw Happy pull up from the living room window, ushering him gently through the back entrance of the diner which was indeed below the apartment.

"Boss," Happy greeted as he opened the car door for Tony, Tony gave a nod of greeting back and turned to thank his unexpected rescuer, "So uh, thank you, for not calling the cops on me, and for everything else."

Harry chuckled, a pleasant sound, "no problem, but if I may make a suggestion?" Tony nodded, curious as to what she would say, "the next time you feel like going out and getting rip roaring drunk, don't. It's not good for you, a few drinks here and there is alright, but what ever it is you're looking for, you won't find it in a bottle."

Tony blinked in surprise, while most people would find a stranger's so called words of wisdom in this particular case to be rude, after all, it's not like she knew why he was drinking, he could've been at a party for all she knew! But, there was something in the way she looked at him, something in the way those impossibly bright green eyes darkened with shadows of memories best forgotten, that told him she knew exactly what she was talking about, and he found he couldn't find it in him to feel even remotely righteously angry, all he felt was tired.

"If you ever want, come have some food sometime, we make the best cheeseburgers in all of Manhattan!" She called out with a wink as he climbed into the back seat of the car, he gave her a nod and a wave as the tinted windows of the car rolled up and Happy pulled away from the curb.

A glance back showed Harry still standing there on the side of the road, she remained there until the car turned the corner and could no longer be seen. For the rest of the ride back to the tower, beyond the constant ache in his head, all he could think about was a kind smile, and a pair of green eyes.


	2. A Piece of pie and two coffees

A/N: I'm blown away by how many of you are liking this story, I'm touched and I hope it continues to entertain you, and I really appreciate the feedback so far, thank you all so much!

I neglected to mention in the first chapter that this takes place Post Hogwarts, Post Age of Ultron, and Pre- Civil war (following the MCU versions) the way I have it planned out so far, it's going to be fairly long and very slow to build as certain foundations need to be laid, but I hope you guys stick with it and that you'll like it!

 **Chapter 2: A Piece of Pie and Two Coffees.**

How does one forget the past? Block out the bad and only keep the good? How can a person, so weighed down, learn to lift themselves up again, and remember that though dark times wax and wane, good is still there waiting to be found?

Harry often wondered these things, more so since leaving the U.K and travelling to the States, it'd been years since the end of the war, and three years since she'd come to settle in New York and she still had yet to find answers to those questions.

"Harry!" Harry blinked in surprise and shook her head, turning her attention to the red headed woman in front of her.

"Ginny," she responded in acknowledgement, Ginny rolled her eyes with a sigh, "thought you'd gotten lost there," she commented wryly, with a quirk of her eyebrow, but the telling pull at the corner of her mouth belied her genuine concern.

Harry gave a quick small smile, "I'm alright Gin," she reassured, turning back to her task of flipping burgers on the grill. Ginny nodded with a sigh and watched her with slightly worried eyes.

After the war, they were all lost; lost their ways, lost their friends, lost their families… Even lost themselves.

For so long, Ginny was lost. Sure, she played professional Quidditch, amassed a decent fortune and an even bigger following, but it never fulfilled her the way the years of her youth did; the years before the war when the biggest thing she had to worry about was whether she'd be sorted into Gryffindor or not, or even if she did well in her classes.

Then war came, and it was horror and pain, and the biggest thing Ginny worried about in those years was whether or not everyone she cared about would live to see another day.

And when they'd won; when Harry took up her wand and vanquished the darkness, fought it back with her blinding light, and the world celebrated, Ginny remained lost.

She'd filled her days with daring stunts performed on broomsticks high in the air for thousands and thousands of screaming fans, and when it didn't help her find her way, find herself; she quit.

She wandered for a couple of years after that, and then Harry, sweet brave Harry announced at a family dinner that she was moving to America, and needing a new start herself; Ginny jumped, without hesitation to go with her. Though she missed being close to her family, leaving with Harry was something she never regretted, not once.

Ginny tugged at the long sleeve of her shirt, the flesh of her hand raised with burns long healed by the passing of time. They were all haunted by war, they all carried scars from that period of their lives.

"So," Ginny carried on, leaning against the prep table beside the grill, close enough to be heard but far enough the splatters from the grill wouldn't catch her.

"So what?" Harry asked after a few minutes of silence, Ginny smirked knowingly, "I heard that you had a gentlemen visitor last weekend." Harry immediately rolled her eyes, no matter how much things changed, some things would always be the same; Ginny was one of them.

"It wasn't what you think Gin, the guy was plastered beyond belief and shoved his hand through the front window, and then passed out on the floor, I couldn't leave him there!" She explained exasperatedly, Ginny chuckled, "and instead of calling the authorities, you stuck him in your bed?" she asked with a wiggle of her eyebrows.

Harry groaned, "nothing happened! He was passed out! I don't even know who he was, and it's been a week, I highly doubt I'd see him again!" She insisted, Ginny chuckled again, "well if you do, tell him I said hello!" She cheered before sauntering away back to the front of the diner.

Harry sighed fondly, nah, she thought, I probably won't see him again, She turned placing the completed meals on the window shelf and dinged the bell for pick up.

Several hours later, found Harry yawning as she leant against the main counter, she hadn't been sleeping well; plagued by nightmares and couldn't even take dreamless sleep for them having already exceeded the recommended dose for the week, and unfortunately she still had half an hour till close and was quickly running out of steam.

I could just close early, she debated, no one else was in the diner, and hadn't been for the last hour, she'd long since sent the other cook home; Sunday nights were always dead after the dinner rush.

She'd just about made up her mind to close up early, when the bell above the door jingled, she glanced up at the clock in surprise, not many people would be wandering around lower manhattan let alone coming to her diner at 10:30 at night on a Sunday.

"Welcome!" She called out, ducking down to grab a menu, "sit anywhere you like!" She stood up and made her way into the seating area, stopping short when she finally looked at her visitor.

It took a second to place him, he was cleaned up, dressed in an old well worn band shirt and a pair of rugged jeans, and sporting an out of place, given the time of night, pair of tinted sunglasses. But it was clearly her visitor from last Friday night, sitting unobtrusively at a corner booth.

"I Didn't expect to see you back so soon, or at all really," she commented, handing him a menu. The man cleared his throat awkwardly, not making a move to accept the menu. "Couldn't sleep?" The response sounded more like a question to her ears.

Harry hummed, bright eyes roving over his form quickly, his right hand healed up well, a faint zig zag of very light marks remaining from the scrape of glass over skin, but there was an odd shaking in his left; a faint tremor, barely noticeable and she wouldn't have seen it if she hadn't been scrutinizing him so closely.

She frowned, placing the menu on the table top, she couldn't help the jolt of curiosity that shocked it's way through her when he only reached for it once her own hand was clear of the table. What an odd duck, she pondered, shaking her head to rid herself of the distracting thoughts, she gave a soft cough clearing her throat, "can I start you with anything to drink?"

Her visitor made a show of glancing at the menu before tossing it aside, "a soda is fine, and I recall you saying that you make the best cheeseburgers in Manhattan here, I'd like to test that theory." He gave her a charming smirk to accompany his words.

Harry chuckled, she'd seen that look one too many times, self assured, over- confidant, cocky even, "the works?" She asked, not bothering to write the order down, he was her only patron and would be her last for the night.

"No mustard," he responded, Harry hummed in understanding, disappearing to the kitchen, she returned several minutes later, placing a large glass of iced soda on his table, turning on her heel to go check on the burger patty she'd left sizzling on the grill.

When she returned to his table again it was bearing a large platter sporting a thick done up burger, and a small mountain of fries.

"Can I get you anything else?" She asked, her visitor shook his head with a muttered "I'm good thanks," Harry nodded, backing away to the main counter and starting the flush of the soda fountain machine and beginning other small clean ups.

Out of the corner of her eye she watched her visitor, curious about this man, he was tapping rapidly on his phone and the way he was devouring those fries made her fondly think of Ron and his love of chicken wings.

She couldn't stop the thrill of excitement as her visitor finally discarded his phone and went for the burger with both hands, she wiped the counter tops down, waiting in anticipation as he took one large bite and suddenly stilled.

"Sir?" Harry prodded gently, when after several minutes he hadn't moved, just sat there with a burger held in his hands, a bite between his teeth, "you alright over there?" She asked, a little louder.

The man gave a loud satisfied moan, the noise so unexpected it caused Harry to jump, "dear Lord, what is in this burger, crack? Is it crack? A little bit of heaven?" He asked between mouthfuls, "It's like spicy, but not spicy, smokey, but not charcoal grilled smokey, and this meat; so tender and juicy." He continued making Harry laugh, within minutes the burger was gone, his platter completely cleared, and he sat staring down at it forlornly.

"Would you like another?" She asked, her tone teasing. The man glanced at his phone, the time reading 10:58pm, "don't you close at eleven?" Harry shrugged, "I do, but it's not like I mind the company, I'll just lock the door so no one else comes in." She said, moving to do just that, and flipping the operating sign to 'Closed'.

The man was giving her an odd look when she turned back around, "so, at 11 at night, you lock yourself in a building with a stranger," he ticked off on his fingers, "do you not have a sense of self preservation?" Harry laughed as she brushed by his table, collecting his empty plate and glass and gesturing him to come sit at the main counter.

"Don't let my short stature fool you good sir, I'm tougher than I look," she retorted, "could probably kick your arse," she tossed over her shoulder with a wink as she entered the kitchen, another meat patty getting put to sizzle away on the grill.

The man sat on one of the stools, watching her through the order pick up window as she moved about, putting on more fries, and fixing the burger bun.

"I highly doubt that" he suddenly said into the silence of the diner, Harry glanced up at him, "doubt what?" She asked, turning her attention back to the grill.

"You, kicking my ass. Doubtful." Harry grinned, looking up at him again, "you'd be surprised at what I can do," she informed him cryptically. Tony snorted with a smirk, "sweetheart, I'm a superhero," She stared at him blankly, "good for you?"

The man gaped, whipping his sunglasses off to stare at her incredulously, "do you not know who I am?" He asked as she came out of the kitchen, platter held in her hands.

"Should I?" She responded, placing the platter down in front of him, "It's surprising that you don't! Stark Industries is a huge company, and we do have offices in the U.K" He said, voice heavy with disbelief.

"well, don't feel too bad." She laughed, "I grew up in a sheltered house, and then went right to boarding school for seven years, I didn't even know Spice Girls was a thing until I turned nineteen." She leaned over the counter conspiratorially, "and that was in 1999, three years after their debut."

"Tony Stark, you may also know me as Iron Man," He finally introduced himself, Harry stuck out her hand for him to shake, "Harry, but you already knew that." She said with a warm smile.

Several minutes of silence passed, Harry going about her nightly clean, and Tony eating his meal, mind whirling. She gave no reaction to his name, or to the fact that he regularly flew around in a suit of armour; in fact she didn't even seem to care! His curiosity was peaked, and he had to know more.

"So" Tony began, catching Harry's attention, "you were 19 in '99? You an 1980's baby?" Harry nodded, "July 31st, 1980" She said proudly, "I'm ten years older than you, May 29th, 1970" he commented, Harry snorted in mirth, "congratulations, would you like a cookie?" She asked jokingly.

Tony chuckled in amusement at her sassy response, pushing his empty platter away, "no cookie, but that banana pie you've got there looks mighty appetizing." He hinted, gesturing the cake holder with a whole banana pie in it, "bet it goes great with a cup of coffee."

Harry smiled brightly, "this pie is a family recipe" she informed once she washed her hands and cut him a large piece, "My adoptive mother taught me how to make it" she continued, sliding the pie over to him while grabbing a clean mug for his coffee, screw it, she thought pouring herself one as well.

"Adoptive mother?" Tony asked curiously around a forkful of sinfully delicious pie, "my parents died when I was a baby, barley over a year old, when I was eleven I met one of my best friends Ron, his family sort of unofficially adopted me."

Tony frowned at the response, "you didn't live with them?" Harry shook her head, "I lived with my mother's sister, and her family until I was seventeen, there was some…legal issues and I wasn't able to go stay with Ron's family permanently, only a few weeks out of every summer from ages 12 to 17," she didn't sound happy about that, Tony thought as he watched her sip at her own coffee.

"Well then, what brings you here?" He asked, genuinely wanting to know more about this kind diner owner. Harry shrugged, her expression turning maudlin, "you ever feel like everything is closing in on you, and if you don't find a way out, you'll suffocate in it all?" She asked after several long minutes of silence.

Tony crossed his arms on the counter top, leaning on them, now empty plate discarded to the side, "all the time" he agreed solemnly, "that's why I left." She said with a heavy sigh.

"I was in my teens during the terrorists attacks" She continued quietly, sticking to the cover up story the Ministry of Magic provided for the spill over into the muggle world the war caused.

"I found out a lot of things then, things that I think I would've been better off not knowing," she said, her tone low and full of a thick sadness, one so saturated Tony could almost feel her grief as his own.

"Growing up, my Aunt told me that my parents died in a car crash, and well you know, I was little, I had no reason to question it, she used to tell me in the most hateful of ways that my dad was a drunk and my mother couldn't hold down a job." Harry swallowed, blinking back tears from those horrible memories of her time spent at the Dursleys.

"Then I got older, I went to a boarding school for the gifted, and met people that knew my parents, and it turns out; Aunt Petunia lied." Harry turned her head to look at Tony, "why would she do that? What made this woman hate so much, that she lied willfully to a little girl who only wanted to know that her parents had lived? That they were real, they were here, that they loved their child."

Harry chuckled unamused, "imagine waking up one day and discovering that everything you knew, everything that you'd been taught was a lie, how do you think you'd feel?"

Tony didn't respond, he remained sitting and listening to her, "I felt horrible. I knew the truth; my parents weren't unemployed alcoholics that got themselves killed in a car crash. My parents were heroes." She smiled through her misty eyes.

"My parents fought off terrorists, incurred the wrath of the leader, they defied him and outwitted him, and then when they had to take me into hiding, they were betrayed by someone they called friend…. That man, who slaughtered and tortured hundreds based off his ideals of blood purity and believed he had the right to decide who lived and who died, came into our house in the night, like a filthy diseased rat, and he murdered my parents."

Harry swiped at her face, rubbing away the tears that had begun to fall, "my beautiful, young, brave parents." She said, voice hollow.

"My dad died on the staircase, he was trying to buy my mum time to get me and run, and he died on the bloody staircase!" She said it with such anger, the injustice of her father's death and of the lies her relatives told about him.

"My mother bargained for my life, and she died to save me, my parents were good people, who stood against evil personified and loved me so much they died for me. And my Aunt, told me nothing but lies." Harry took a deep breath, "is it wrong and petty of me to say that I still haven't forgiven her for it?"

Tony shook his head, "no." He said firmly, "it's not, you have every right to be angry with her, for not telling you the truth, they were your parents, you deserved to know."

Harry smiled sadly, "I'm so tired of being angry" she said, "I've been angry for such a long time, and it's exhausting, I don't want to be angry anymore. I want to forgive them, and as much as it sucks, I think I understand why they lied to me."

Tony tilted his head curiously, "I think it was their roundabout, and half arsed way of protecting me," she explained, Tony frowned, "why do you think that?" He asked, Harry shrugged, "the last time I saw my Aunt I was seventeen, and followers of a mad man's ideologies painted targets on our backs, so my Aunt, Uncle, and cousin, had to go away for their own safety, and the last thing my Aunt said to me was; 'I know perfectly well what they're capable of. You didn't just lose a mother that night in Godric's Hollow, I lost a sister.' Perhaps it was their way of keeping me away from the world that took my parents; that took my Aunt's sister."

Harry took another deep shuddering breath, "I like to believe my Aunt loved my mother, but time and distance and old wounds made my Aunt think she couldn't reach out and mend what had been damaged, so she didn't. And for years after she lived her life as if she never had a sister to begin with, only to one day, wake up with me dumped on her doorstep with a letter saying; your sister is dead."

Harry sighed sadly, "I wonder what my Aunt felt in that moment, was she relieved? Stunned? I like to think that she loved my mum, that she loved her sister and what she felt was true grief for what once was and could've been again, if she'd only had the courage to hold out her hand and say something."

Harry gently placed her half drained mug on the counter top and collected Tony's empty plates, "I've been living in a sea of anger and hate for so long I was drowning in it and didn't even know it. So here I am, making a fresh start."

Tony remained silent, not sure how to respond, finally he cleared his throat, "my parents died in an actual car crash when I was a teenager." He said quietly, "my mother, now that hurts; I really loved her, she may not have been the greatest mom, always busy with charities and galas, but she tried, she taught me how to play the piano, and what proper espresso should taste like, and when I was really little, she'd even tuck me in and sing to me old lullabies and tell me stories. I really miss her."

He didn't know what he was doing, he'd never said those words out loud before, but now that they were out there, he found he couldn't stop, "my dad was a dick, an old son of a bitch obsessed with the legend of a dead man, he was cold, and calculating, never told me he loved me, didn't even hint that he tolerated me."

Tony paused, trying to find the right way to say it, continuing with great difficulty, "but he was still my dad, and as much as I hated him, I loved him too, and now I'll never know if he'd be proud of me, if I finally lived up to his expectations, or if I'll still be just a disappointment to him."

"I was pretty much raised by my Godfather after they died, Obediah Stane, turns out he didn't care about me, he wanted the company and the money and power that came with it." Tony coughed, clearing his throat from the sudden thick emotion clogging him.

"I was doing a weapons demonstration in Afghanistan, when the convoy I was with was attacked, brave men and women laid down their lives to keep me safe and it was my weapons that killed them. I survived the attack, was taken hostage and discovered that I had shrapnel in my chest clawing it's way to my heart, ended up with an electromagnet embedded in my chest to stop it, only thing keeping me alive."

There was a sombre silence, stretching out to allow the information to be taken in, Tony ducked his head down, staring at his coffee mug.

"They tortured me, mostly water boarding, threats of death, the usual stuff. Wanted me to build them a Jericho missile, I was with them three long months, thats the amount of time it took to build the first Iron Man suit, and afterwards I found out that Stane, my Godfather, he set up the whole thing, with me gone, he'd get the keys to the kingdom. He betrayed me in every way that it counted and then some."

"The uh, man who saved my life in Afghanistan by putting the magnet in; Yinsen, he uh, he died allowing me to escape, saved my life twice." Tony huffed a heavy sigh, "when he died, he told me not to waste my life." He said in a low voice, "but the thing is, I don't think I held up to my end. I think I've wasted my life."

"How so?" Harry asked gently, reaching over with the pot of coffee to top up his mug, he nodded his thanks, taking a swig before answering, "Stane was double dealing my weapons, and a lot of innocent people were dying. I tried to stop it by becoming Iron Man, but what if what people say about me is true; that I'm no hero? That I'll always be just a profiteering dog of war."

Harry frowned, leaning across the counter, "Some say heroes are made and not born, some say we choose our own paths, and some say we don't decide if we're heroes or not, sometimes the mantle is chosen for us. What we do choose, is to stand up and own it. You stood up, you owned it, I think that makes you a hero."

Tony shook his head in denial, "not possible. I…screwed up, I mean I screwed up big time, I did something I shouldn't have, and because of it, a whole city got wiped off the map, and I mean completely obliterated."

Harry tilted her head curiously, "are you talking about Sokovia?" She asked, she remembered it well, it was all over the news, how a murder android sought to destroy humanity by recreating an astroid to strike the earth causing mass climate changes that would wipe out all human life.

That wasn't why she remembered it though, Harry swallowed thickly, pushing back the foreboding feeling crawling up her spine, she remembered Sokovia because of all the death.

Tony nodded solemnly, Sokovia and Ultron would always be counted amongst his biggest regrets. "Life throws us all kinds of lessons, some are easier to grasp than others, but the one thing life teaches us is simply this; learn from your mistakes." Harry said, reaching out and placing a warm hand over Tony's barely shaking left one.

"Knowing the difference between right and wrong can be subjective, sometimes it's instinctive; don't steal from the shop, it's wrong. Stop a fellow classmate from being bullied, that's right. But what if it's, steal from the shop because you're a single parent who can barely afford rent and your baby needs diapers? Now it becomes; the wrong thing done, but for the right reasons."

Harry gave a gentle squeeze, feeling the tremors in his hand slowly subsiding, "you made a mistake, but you just wanted to protect the planet, a suit of armour around the world, it's not your fault it didn't pan out that way, maybe there was no other way for it to have happened. You made a mistake, a great one yes, but then we all make great mistakes, and yours was doing the wrong thing, but for the right reason."

Harry shook her head slowly, "so don't blame yourself, don't carry that weight on your shoulders, because guilt is a monster that lives inside us, where it feeds and festers until we're rotted from within and there's nothing left of us to give. Instead, lift your head up high, own what you did, and learn from that mistake, because it's all you can do."

Harry chuckled, releasing her grip on his hand and standing up, "suit of Iron or not, you're still only human, and you'll continue to make mistakes, learn from them, so you won't repeat them."

She turned and walked away, the sounds of her cleaning the grill now echoing in the empty diner, while Tony sat routed to the spot, her words resounding in his head, and for the first time since Sokovia, since the flashes of his dead teammates zipped across his mind and those haunting words of 'you should've done more' echoed in his nightmares, Tony breathed just a little bit easier, hands a little steadier, and mind a little clearer, and he felt a little more freer.


	3. The Corner Booth

A/N: Wow, so uh I hope I'm living up to the challenge of keeping this story going with the same level of quality, I'm still so blown away by how many people are liking it.

Just a quick mention; I don't think Pepper meant to hurt Tony, I don't think they worked as couple, I like to think that Rhodey is the fun time guy, the one who has Tony's back no matter what, and Pepper is his voice of reason, the one that pulls Tony back when he gets too far away. That's just my personal opinion.

That being said, there's a scene in Iron Man 3 (possible SPOILER) where Tony legitimately tries to talk about his feelings only to get shut down, and that didn't sit right with me, so this chapter kind of deals with his insecurity over emotions, particularly his own.

 **Chapter 3: The Corner Booth.**

Nimble fingers delicately manipulated the hologram in front of him, "Friday," he called out, "give me an expanded view here," he asked pointing idly at one part of the schematic, "it seems your calculations are spot on as usual Boss, this is really something," Friday praised.

Tony chuckled, a hint of sadness in the sound, she'd never replace Jarvis; his brightest star, but she was uniquely individual, a piece of himself carved out of endless lines of code, and she was learning, by God, she was learning. She was already so smart, and already so sassy, he loved her the same way he loved Jarvis, the same way he loved the bots.

"Boss," Tony glanced up at Friday's main sensor, detecting a note of apprehension in her voice, "what's up buttercup?" He asked going back to his designs, "a call from Miss. Potts, the business line."

Tony's hands stilled on their work, and he breathed a heavy sigh, he'd been avoiding Pepper ever since she ended things with him, he'd thought it'd been going well, thought they'd make the long haul…. He'd been wrong.

"Patch her through" he said with great reluctance, hearing Pepper's voice brought back the feelings of good times they'd had, times he never thought he'd have again these days, but he couldn't avoid her forever, she still ran his company after all.

"Tony?" Pepper's voice resounded in the lab,

"Miss. Potts, what can I do for you?" Tony asked, resorting to formal titles to keep the distance he needed from her.

"Tony" Pepper sighed sadly, "look, I know I hurt you, but you have to know; it wasn't an easy decision, I'm worried about you Tony, you disappear at night, and you keep yourself locked away, and avoiding me isn't going to help our relationship any. I just-"

Tony made a neck slicing motion, having Friday disconnect the call, "No, nope, nuh-uh, negatory" he muttered closing down his saved work and standing up with a shake of his head, backing away from his work table.

"You don't get to do that!" He shouted suddenly, pointing at nothing, "you don't get to break my heart, tear me down, and then give me the 'I'm worried' speech!" He grabbed hold of a mug that was left discarded on a side table and threw it harshly against the far wall where it shattered into thousands of tiny pieces, old sludge like liquid leaving a stain on the pristine wall.

"You don't get to do that" Tony cried, sinking to his knees, and then onto his back side, wrapping his arms around himself, "not that, anything but that."

"Boss," Friday's voice spoke up after hours of silence where he remained sitting on the cold ground, hugging himself, that desperate part he kept buried just longing for any kind of comforting contact.

"If I may make a suggestion?" Tony slowly eased himself up, "what is it?" He asked, voice hoarse, "you should go out for a bit Boss, maybe take a walk around the city…stop for food?"

Tony paused in his movements of cleaning up the shattered remains of the mug, "you know Fri, I think you're right." He stood up, depositing the glass shards into the trash.

Half an hour later, freshly showered and in clean clothes, found Tony leaving the tower through the underground parking lot, "don't wait up for me!" He called back as the exit door shut behind him and he set off on foot, maybe a walk was what he needed, that and some good food.

It wasn't long before Tony found himself outside the Black Wolf Diner, and what an odd name for a diner, but it was strangely suited to it.

He pushed open the door, hearing the jingle that alerted a new customer had entered the restaurant, it was early still, barely one in the afternoon, and a quick glance around showed no signs of bright emerald eyes and raven hair.

Tony made a dissatisfied noise and made his way to the corner booth, he'd been coming here pretty much everyday now, since the first night he found himself sitting in the diner, it must have been a week now, and he'd claimed the corner booth on the far side as his own.

He sat heavily down onto the plush seats with a relieved sigh, the atmosphere of the diner was lively, patrons talking, silverware clinking, and servers moving back and forth calling out orders, and the dinging of the pick up bell.

"Welcome to Black Wolf, can I get you anything to drink to start?" Tony blinked at the British accent, looking up to see a beautiful red headed woman, with warm brown eyes, she placed a menu on the table in front of him and stood patiently waiting for his response.

"Soda, please." The woman nodded with a hum and turned on her heel, she headed back to the main counter, her steps with no sound, almost like she was gliding across the floor.

She returned a few moments later with his drink, asking him if he needed more time to decide, Tony shook his head, "no I'm good, I'll have the deluxe cheeseburger, the works, no mustard, and fries for the side." The red head nodded, and Tony watched her go with a pang, of all the servers in the diner at the moment, he had to get the red head, as if his phone call with another red head wasn't enough.

He'd finished his meal a while ago now, and the lunch rush had died off, leaving him and a couple of others in the diner, he sat in his corner booth, tapping away on his phone when a sudden lurch caused him to look up.

The red head was sitting in the booth with him, she had her elbows on the table, her chin resting in her hands, and was regarding him with curious eyes.

"Can I help you?" Tony asked, when she didn't offer up any words, she smirked, "funny" she commented, "that's usually my line" Tony frowned, bewildered. "Right, and you are…?" She stuck out her hand at his prompting, "Ginny Weasley," she introduced, Tony reached out and took her hand, giving it a single shake, "Tony-" he began, but she cut him off, "Stark, yes I know." She said with a wider smirk, "unlike my dear beloved sister Harry, I keep myself up to date with current events, one doesn't fly around in a suit of metal without notice, or have that same person sitting at their diner well after close every night for over a week, I did some research on you Mr. Stark, and I must say; I'm curious."

Ginny leaned back, arms tossed over the back of the booth seat, one leg crossed over the other, "you're a very interesting man Mr. Stark, not a lot of people can say they survived a hostage situation in the middle of a desert, let alone build a fighter suit to get out of it. The things you've done; advanced weaponry, those smart crops of yours, clean self sustaining energy…Iron Man. All are very impressive," she commented idly.

Tony let his face go blank, "is there a reason you're mentioning all this, Miss. Weasley?" Ginny chuckled, "like I said, you're interesting, and I like interesting." She winked, Tony paused in surprise, "uh look, I'm flattered, but I'm not into whatever it is you're after. If you tried this five years ago, I'd be down to get down, but now, no."

Ginny laughed in delighted surprise, "please don't mistake my intentions Mr. Stark, I don't do one night stands, I'm past that stage in my life, and frankly, you're not my type. I just like interesting things; interesting people."

Tony felt out of sorts, "than what do you want?" He asked wearily, Ginny laughed again, "I don't particularly want anything, I have everything I need, and that's enough for me," she reassured, "but I admit, freely, that I am concerned." Her expression suddenly went from mirthful to dangerous.

Tony felt a chill go down his spine, the sudden change in her demeanour set off every warning alarm in his body, igniting the urge to call his suit.

"Harry is my sister by choice, blood doesn't tie us, we hold each other." Ginny started quietly, "she's a brave woman, tougher than hell, I once watched her take down an entire squadron of enemies with no available weapon, she can be quite a monster when the occasion calls for it."

She carried on, her tone casually conversational, "but for all that strength, Harry is vulnerable, she has a habit of seeing the good in people, even when there's no good to be found. And as much as I love her, she's got this nasty saving people thing, puts herself in unnecessary danger because of it. You see she's not the kind to turn her back on someone that needs help, and that worries me. You worry me."

Tony made a stunned noise, "is this a shovel talk, are you giving me a shovel talk?" He asked incredulously, Ginny shrugged casually, "call it what you want, but I'm being completely serious here; Harry is one of the few good things I have left in my life, and after everything she's been through, the last thing she needs is to get caught up in you. Iron Man has some dangerous enemies, and Harry doesn't need to be involved in another war, if you know what I mean."

"So what?" Tony asked, feeling strangely defensive, "you want me to stop coming here, stop talking to her? What do you want?" Ginny sighed sadly, "I want you to remember that despite her cheerful disposition, Harry has suffered greatly, and she's become quite fond of you, if Iron Man goes out, and doesn't come back, Harry will suffer more, and that's not something I can let happen."

Tony groaned, "Lordy," he muttered, flashbacks of his breakup with Pepper appearing before his eyes, this is exactly why she ended it with him. "So what, I'm to quit being Iron Man?"

Ginny shook her head, "no, Iron Man is you, you are Iron Man, the two are one in the same, what I'm saying is; be careful." Tony snapped his head up in surprise, "what?" Ginny rolled her eyes, "be careful" she repeated exasperatedly.

"Every time you go out there, it's a chance, however big or small, that something goes wrong, I'm asking you, be careful. Think things through, no rash heat of the moment, knee jerk reactions, analyze your options, and do whatever it takes to make it back. I can't stop you being Iron Man, no one can, only you decided that for yourself, but what I can do, is ask that you be careful, and you keep coming to this diner, because talking to you, it has been good for Harry. You help her, and I like that."

Ginny stood with a dramatic sound, "you're an interesting man Mr. Stark, stay interesting." Ginny turned and walked away, leaving Tony behind reeling.

"What the hell just happened?" He murmured, confused at the interaction that just took place, and how does a person go from cheerful and happy to giving off a vibe of danger so potent, it made him want to summon the suit?!

"Tony!" Tony snapped his head back round, the odd tension in his body from the encounter with Ginny, slowly bleeding out at the sight of those bright green eyes and kind smile, Harry was dressed in a fancy black coat, and stylish boots, a pair of jade green hand knitted gloves on her dainty hands, and a matching beret hat smothering down her thick raven hair. "Odd to see you here in the day light," Harry teased, gesturing at the booth.

A wordless question to sit, Tony immediately beckoned her down, "what brings you here? Lunch break?" Tony shook his head, "I just needed to get out of the tower for a bit," Harry frowned in concern, "did something happen?" She asked softly, not wanting to draw attention to them.

Tony pursed his lips, Harry sat up straighter, taking the motion as a clear sign that something had happened. "Come on up, I don't start for another hour, we've got time if you want."

Tony didn't bother trying to reject her offer, he simply stood and followed her behind the counter and through the kitchen, and up the stair case that lead to her apartment, all the while doing his best to ignore the piercing gaze of Ginny on his back.

Once they were safely inside the apartment, and there was no hang over to distract, Tony noticed things he hadn't before.

The lovely brick fireplace that sat nestled underneath the wall mounted television, a pot full of thick powder on the mantle, the odd wall decoration of a red and gold flag bearing the word 'Gryffindor' proudly. A full body length mirror that would've been out of place where it sat against the wall, but it seamlessly fit in amongst the decor.

A framed certificate for a teaching degree, "were you a teacher?" He asked abruptly, eyes caught on the framed degree, there was something off about it, it didn't list what university she'd gone too, only had her name, and the name of who must've been the dean, and the year of graduation on it.

"For a couple of years yes, I taught defence at my old boarding school" Harry's voice called from the kitchen area. Tony quirked his head in interest, he never would've guessed that, she didn't seem the teacher type, though she did have the patience of one.

Beside the degree was a framed coin, a large golden thing that was blank save for the initials D.A on it. "Who's D.A?" He asked, leaning over to look at the coin, he'd never seen one like it before, it was old and looked heavy, and was probably worth a lot of money.

Harry came up beside him, holding out a mug of coffee, "D.A stands for Defence Association," she answered, looking at the coin with a melancholic, but fond smile, "back in my fifth year at boarding school, we had a teacher who didn't believe we should be taught how to properly defend ourselves, the terrorist organization was newly established then, and no matter what she believed, we were in danger. Unfortunately, certain clubs were prohibited by the school, so some friends and I got a group of students together and we learned in secret."

Tony chuckled, amused, "rule breaker" he said with a small smile, Harry laughed, "you have no idea," she grinned, "by the time I graduated I had over 300 detentions on my record, I also broke fifty school rules and perhaps a dozen laws, luckily I wasn't really caught on those. The D.A was my friend- Hermione's idea, you'll like her, she's a genius too; the brightest student in all of school." Harry said proudly.

"What made it even more fun was that D.A also stands for Dumbledore's Army." Harry laughed, "the defence teacher thought that our Headmaster Professor Dumbledore, was looking to overthrow the ruling Government, and that he was secretly recruiting students for some sort of private army, we rolled with the idea and by day we were Defence Association, in secret; we were Dumbledore's Army."

"I was the teacher, it's actually what made me decide on teaching after I graduated, I had a knack for it, at least that's what my friends say, Professor Potter, I only taught for three years before I resigned. The Headmistress keeps asking me to come back, but I can't." She continued.

"You sound like you enjoyed it, why leave?" Harry shrugged, "I was good at defence, a little too good, certain individuals wanted me to enter into the police program, said my defence talent was wasted on teaching when I could be using my skills to hunt down other such groups. But, I didn't want to fight anymore, I saw enough violence in my teens, I didn't want that to be my life. They wouldn't stop harassing me, it wasn't fair to the other teachers, and students, so I quit. Not long after I moved here, I like my life, it's not as exciting as my childhood years were, but I needed this, the peace, the routine."

Tony made a noise of understanding, continuing to look around the room, noticing all the pictures for the first time, "your parents?" He asked, nodding to one that was in a beautiful silver frame of a messy haired man with raven locks, who had his arms around a beautiful red head with startling green eyes.

"Yes, James and Lily Potter." Harry answered, reaching out to gently touch the frame, "noticing a pattern here, Lily, Aunt Petunia, Hydrangea" Tony commented, Harry beamed up at him, "all the women from my mum's side have flower based name, I always liked the name Iris, I think if I ever have a daughter, that'd be her name, Iris Lily."

Harry reached over and picked up another framed picture, "this is Ron and Hermione, they're married now and have two lovely kids, a girl and boy." Tony stared down at the picture, "he's Ginny's brother?" he asked, taking in the resemblance between the red headed man in the picture, and the red headed woman he'd just met.

Harry glanced up sharply, "oh God, you met Ginny?" Tony nodded, "oh yes, I met Ginny, not long before you came in actually."

Harry groaned, "Ginny comes off strongly, but she means well. Whatever she said to you, I'm sorry" she grimaced. Tony shook his head, fingers clenching his mug tightly, "she has red hair" he commented, out of the blue.

"I'm seeing red hair everywhere, Ginny, your mom, your friend Ron," Harry chuckled lightly, "all the Weasleys have red hair, it's like a defining trait with them." She joked, attempting to lighten the mood.

"Do you have a thing about red hair?" She asked after a beat, Tony got an odd look on his face, "I can't say yes or no to that, it's complicated." Harry nodded, "start from the beginning," she encouraged gently, moving to sit on the couch with him following her.

"I met her when she caught an accounting error that would've cost my company millions, she was bright, determined, and competent, I liked it, so I hired her as my personal Assistant; Virginia Potts, but everyone calls her Pepper." Tony began, telling the story with an odd tone.

"She became one of the few people in the world I trusted explicitly, and after some years, and a lot of bullshit, we started dating, I was already Iron Man, and I thought things were going well, I was even planning on proposing to her, and then she broke up with me."

Harry fixed him with a sad look, "did she say why?" Tony made a derisive sound, "she didn't like me putting on the suit and risking my life, didn't like that every time I went out I got hurt. She couldn't handle me being Iron Man, and I couldn't stop. I tried, but I couldn't, so she ended things, and she has red hair."

Tony gave one shuddering long breath, "now I'm seeing red hair all the time, and it hurts." Harry made a sound, equal parts comfort and understanding, "often times we do things to protect ourselves, even if it means we hurt the ones we love. It's not intentional, just an unfortunate side effect, but it doesn't make the pain any less."

Harry leaned back against the couch, "She's your friend, was your friend first, and it's not that she couldn't handle being with you, it sounds more like, she was afraid of losing you, losing her friend. So she did what she had to do, to make the fear of losing you lessen it's painful grip on her. It's hard to lose someone you love platonically, perhaps it's even harder to lose someone you love romantically, it was her way of protecting herself from that level of sorrow."

Harry gave a small smile, "it doesn't mean she stopped loving you, even if she doesn't love you romantically anymore, she still loves you, and she's still a big part of your life, and it's going to take some time to move past the hurt, but she's most likely hurting too, and just as badly. She made a choice, even if she didn't want it to hurt, it did. Now she has to live with that, not only that, but now she's afraid she's lost you as a friend too."

Harry reached out and flicked Tony on the cheek gently, "would you rather have her in your life as a friend now, or not at all?" Tony sighed mournfully, "how did you get to be so wise?" He asked, turning his head to look at her.

Harry popped her lips together, a soft 'puh' sound coming from the motion, "I went through it too, except mine was dumb as shit, I got involved with a boy in my year whose father was a secret, relatively, member of the terrorist cell that murdered my parents and caused so much destruction. Our romance was mostly born out of a longing for companionship, we were both trapped in our own ways, and I stupidly thought we'd make it past the horror. We spent one last night together right before graduation, and in the morning it was announced that he was getting married."

Harry laughed to herself, "I knew it was an arranged marriage, he didn't choose it himself, but it still felt like a betrayal, I avoided him for the rest of the time we spent at school and after the graduation ceremony, I never saw him again." She made a noise, "I regret that, it may not have been love, and it was all sorts of messed up, but I regret not speaking to him, and now I wonder if it's worth it? He's happy now in his marriage from what I've heard, they had a baby a few years back, and I feel like if I tried to speak to him, I'll pull all that down for him."

Harry stretched with a content popping of her joints, "learn from my mistake Tony, you care about her, she's still your friend, don't let that go. Take the time you need to grieve and move on, talk to her about it, tell her how much she hurt you and how you feel, but don't walk away from it entirely, otherwise you'll regret it."

Tony remained silent for a long time, "what if I'm not ready to make peace?" He whispered into the silence of the room, "then you're not ready," Harry agreed simply. Tony turned his body to sit slanted on an angle where he could face her properly.

"Just like that?" He asked, Harry made a motion with her hand, as if to sweep away a speck of dust, "just like that," she said calmly.

"Betrayal isn't something we can take lightly, it's so easy to trust someone, so when they break that trust, and they hurt us, even if they didn't mean too, it's not something you can get over easily." She began, "that's why I say; take all the time you need, and decide if it's worth it."

Harry shrugged idly, "those are things you'll have to ask yourself," she carried on, "how do you feel? Why do you feel that way? Can you forgive her? Do you want her back in your life, even if it's not in a romantic sense? Does she mean enough of something to you, that you can push past that hurt and try to build something else?"

Harry fixed Tony with an intense stare, those brilliant emerald eyes sharp and assessing, "Martin O'Malley once said 'bridges do not repair themselves, or rebuild themselves,' if she's reached out to you, which I have a very strong feeling she has, then she's trying to rebuild the bridge here, once you've taken the time to process the end of one thing, then maybe it's time to let it become the beginning of something else. Meet her half way," Harry encouraged, tone earnest. "Let everything that happened before, be water under that newly built bridge."

"I'm good at building things" Tony said softly, "but I don't think I'm ready to tackle this project, seems too big…too heavy, I'm not fond of heavy lifting." Harry nodded understandingly, "and that's okay too, when you're ready, take baby steps. Start by; not shutting her out if she tries to speak to you, don't avoid contact, and listen when she speaks, and make sure she listens to you, because your opinion is important, and your feelings matter just as much as anyone else's."

Tony gave a slight start of surprise, no one had ever said that to him before, he'd lived so long underneath the mantle of spoiled little rich boy, that no one ever really stopped to think that he had emotions too, and that he hurt just the same as the next person. Spent so long like that, that at at some point he just began to accept it, and it was easy too accept that no one aside from very few people, believed he mattered.

Rhodey was the only one who ever said anything similar to him, and how many people in between were there? Sunset, Tiberius, Rumiko, Stane, shit even Nick Fury in a way. All people who made him feel as if he didn't matter in same way or another.

For the first time since meeting her, Tony reached out and gave Harry's hand a firm squeeze. A motion that made her smile at him widely. She was right, he knew she was, it was difficult for him to accept, but yes; his feelings mattered too, and they shouldn't be pushed aside so easily like that vaguely haunting memory of 'you come here and sleep, and I go downstairs and I tinker' 'I'm sleeping on the couch, tinker with that.'

You don't have to be worried Ginny, Tony thought hours later as he left the diner, waiting on the street for Happy to come pick him up because no way was he walking back to the tower in the frigid weather of October at midnight! Above him, Harry's overhead light clicked off, and the soft glow of the living room lamp took it's place, and he caught sight of her silhouette in the window, keeping watch until the sleek car Happy drove pulled silently up to the curb.

"Boss," Happy greeted, the same as always, "Happy" Tony returned the greeting with his usual amount of snark, climbing into the back seat, the car pulled away and Tony glanced back over his shoulder out the rear window; Harry's silhouette was still there, the thought that she was watching him to make sure he'd gotten home alright, sent odd warming sensations across his skin.

The car drove further and further away, behind them the large sign reading 'Black Wolf Diner' glowed happily in the night. I'll keep coming here, he promised silently.


	4. The Fire Escape

A/N: Hello! I just wanted to give a thanks for everyone who is following, and continuing to read this, I truly appreciate it, thank you so much! And thank you to everyone who reviewed, I love your comments!

This chapters starts off a little disjointed, it was purposely done like that, and also; Tony really needed to hear this! Someone needed to say this to him, because he was suffering and no one saw it…except maybe Rhodey, and he's going to make an appearance really soon.

 **Chapter 4: The Fire Escape.**

The stars were bright.

It was beautiful, he thought, gazing up at an endless night sky, and wow; those stars were bright. He could be content to spend the rest of his days looking at those bright stars, he would be happy doing such a thing.

Until the rumbling came; that deep, thundering, familiar rumbling. His breath came in short gasps, and his heart thudded painfully in his chest, pulse beating rapidly, he clenched his eyes shut tightly, anything to block out what came next.

But that horrible, twisted rumbling coaxed his eyes open, and he couldn't help but look out into the abyss.

The Chitauri creature sailed above him almost lazily, sounding out it's rumbling cry, and as it disappeared into the distance of those bright stars, he looked before him and saw his worst fears come to life; his family, lying broken and twisted.

He was beside them in an instant, Hulk's dying pleas for life tapering off into nothingness, Natasha's eyes blown wide and unseeing, Thor laying beside the broken remains of mjolnir, Clint's arms bent and twisted, his mouth open in silent screams of agony.

Then there was Cap; Steve, and his visage lay thrown to the ground amongst the cracked pieces of his once indestructible shield, and he threw himself down beside his fallen comrades, his family and wept.

Face buried in calloused hands, he cried his sorrow, nothing could stop the anguish surging through his wrecked being, until by almost miracle, Steve stuttered a breath and grabbed his wrist.

The grip was tight and bruising, he looked down upon Steve with a plea to loosen that tight grip, but Steve stared up at him with accusing eyes and gasped out 'you should have done more.'

…The stars were bright; until they weren't.

Tony jolted awake, his mind caught between reality and nightmare, he sat bolt upright in bed, skin clammy with cold sweat, his breathing sharp and short.

"Boss," the voice of his youngest cut through the haze and panic, "it's 2:27am, you're in your bedroom in the Tower….you're safe Boss."

"Fri? Friday?" Tony wheezed, white knuckled grip on his bed sheets slowly loosening as the red tinged fog lifted from his mind, "I'm here Boss." Friday reassured, her voice soothing the raw remnants of his horrible dream.

No matter how many days passed by, how many nights saw the moon, did those terrible dreams remain.

He sat upon sweat dampened sheets, time passing by until his heat rate slowed to normal, and he could breathe again, but the restlessness still remained.

Tony stood with a weary sigh, tossing on an old M.I.T hoodie that he was sure actually belonged to Rhodey, and a pair of sweat pants, bare feet moving noiselessly over plush rug as he made his way out of his room in search of coffee.

Several long, crawling minutes later found Tony sitting at the kitchen island nursing a cup of strong brew, but the comforting taste of his favourite coffee did nothing to assuage his troubled mind. Everywhere he looked he kept seeing them, kept hearing them; you could have helped….you should have done more.

Tony fumbled with his phone, grabbing it from where he'd left it last night on the island top. He should call someone, he thought, he just needed to talk, maybe that would help? Yes, he should call someone.

He paused staring down at the lit screen, who could he call? None of the others would believe him, that was an instinctive thought that he felt down in his bones, they wouldn't listen to his words of the vision plaguing his mind and terrorizing his dreams.

Pepper? No, he still wasn't on real speaking terms with her, Happy? No, he couldn't wake him up nearing 3 in the morning, it wouldn't be right.

Rhodey?! He could call Rhodey! Tony's fingered hovered over Rhodey's name in his phone, one push was all it would take, until he remembered Rhodey was deployed and was on radio silence.

He didn't have anyone, Tony gasped, the feeling of panic rising again, he could see them! God, he could hear them! 'You could have saved us' 'you should have done more.' He couldn't think, he couldn't breathe, he just needed… he needed…

Tony jumped to his feet, stool clattering to the ground with his movements, coffee cup tossed aside, hot liquid splashing onto the counter top, spilling over the side to pool on the floor.

Tony backed away, arms wrapped around himself; why couldn't he breathe?! he couldn't see, couldn't think. They were there, taunting him, he could have helped! He should have done more! Why didn't he save them?!

"Boss?!" Tony ignored Friday's call, he stumbled over to the bar service, just a nip, he thought, just a small one to steady his hands, calm his nerves.

He just needed…

The bottle of whiskey shook in his grip as he struggled to uncap it, he raised it to his lips but barely a splash touched when words floated into his head "you won't find it in a bottle" the words said in a distinct British accent, resounding in his mind.

The bottle dropped to the ground in a shattering of glass and liquid, "Boss?" Friday asked as Tony gasped in shock, backing away from the mess, shaking violently. Fuck, he thought, gripping his left arm tightly, it hurt, why did it hurt?

"Boss?" Friday called again, her voice bearing the tones of concern and worry, "Boss, please, you must calm down, your heart rate has accelerated dangerously, your vitals are all over the place, Boss please!" Friday pleaded.

Won't find it in a bottle….won't find it in a bottle….where will I find it?

Green eyes, kind smile… There was someone.

His disjointed thoughts cycled through the haze of anxiety, he knew what he needed. "I have to go" Tony called out, practically sprinting for the elevator, he got to the lobby and pushed his way through the exit doors, he hit the pavement running and didn't stop.

He ran for what felt like hours, until he finally stopped, leaning against the windows of a familiar diner breathing hard.

The diner was long closed, the patrons gone, the machinery turned off, and all the lights were out. Tony caught sight of his reflection in the window, God, he looked crazed.

Hair a rumpled mess, eyes blown wide, clothes askew and feet bare against the concrete of the sidewalk. What was he thinking, coming here? It had to be close to four in the morning, there's no way she'd be awake.

Tony moaned low and painfully in his throat, he felt jittery, tired, and lost. He turned to leave when a sharp whistle cut through the air, startled he turned to look up at the source, and leaning out the window; dimly lit by a lamp in the background, there she was.

"Rough night?" She called down, leaning on her crossed arms against the pane of the window, a cigarette dangling from her delicate fingers. Tony gave an almost delirious laugh, "I can't seem to find what I'm looking for" he choked, voice cracking.

Harry frowned down at him, "hang on, I'll let you up," she pulled away from the window, disappearing into the depths of her apartment. There was a beat of silence and then the loud familiar sound of metal grinding against metal clattered from the alleyway next to the diner.

Harry's head popped out of the window a moment later, "go on then" she said, jerking her head towards the alley entrance. Tony swallowed thickly, and began to trek down the alley way, coming across the fire escape, there was a thud from above him and when he looked up it was to see her climbing out from the window that lead to the fire escape.

"You're mental," she said once he settled down beside her on the landing of the escape, she thrust a pair of thick woollen socks into his hands, "coming all this way with no socks or shoes on near the end of bleeding October!" She ranted quietly, "honestly, it's like you want to get sick." She chided, tossing the large thick throw blanket she'd brought out around his shoulders, curling into the other side her self., being careful not jar the small platter holding to mugs on it.

"Sorry, I uh….sorry" Tony muttered, pulling the socks onto his freezing feet before accepting the steaming mug she held out to him, "coffee?" He asked swishing the liquid around, "mm-mm" Harry denied, "hot chocolate."

Tony let out a soft snort, "didn't know I was five" he commented, Harry smiled secretively up at him, "chocolate has healing properties you know," she said, sipping at her own mug, "oh?" Tony questioned eyeing her curiously.

"mmm-hmmm" She hummed, "chocolate contains a special quality that releases endorphins in the brain, makes people happy, calms them down. Chocolate is the best, and you don't need to be wired on caffeine right now, you need to relax."

Tony shrugged, why not? He thought taking a sip of his drink, and finding that it did make him feel better, chased the cold from his bones, and settled his nerves. He continues sipping at the warm liquid, sitting in silence beside this strange woman who didn't hesitate to let him in when he needed somewhere to go, somewhere that wasn't plagued with memories of his dead team mates and their haunting words of help, and should have done more.

Tony shuddered involuntarily as the images raced across his mind again, he tried to block them out but he could still see them, still hear them, why didn't I do more?

"The dead live in my dreams" Tony jolted at the sudden words Harry spoke into the silence between them, "what?" he asked, making sure he heard her right, "the dead live in my dreams" she said it almost casually, as if it was an everyday thing to come up in conversation.

"The dead live in your dreams?" He questioned, Harry nodded with a tight smile, tilting her head to look up at him, "remember when we first met, a couple of weeks or so ago now, and I mentioned that I was in my teens during the terror attacks?" Tony nodded, he remembered well.

"What I didn't say was that I was in the heart of it all," Harry paused to sip at her drink.

"I was fourteen when I saw death clearly, he was a classmate; Cedric, a few years older than me, but we were both participating in a sports tournament designed to promote international co-operation and friendships, I was fourteen, he was seventeen. Cedric was a good guy, he was kind and loyal, and he did the right thing, no matter what it cost, he did the right thing."

Harry sucked in a deep shuddering breath, she never liked talking about Cedric, remembering him hurt in a way that was still fresh, still raw. "There were four of us in the beginning, we had to complete three tasks, and during the last task, two of us got knocked out, it was just Cedric and I remaining. Towards the end, I helped him get out of a tight spot, and when we found the trophy that would declare the winner, Cedric told me to take it. I insisted on us taking it together, and I was foolish, it was a trap, laid by the followers of the man who killed my parents."

Harry slowly lowered her mug, placing it on the ledge beside her, bringing her hands together in a tight hold, "I knew it was too," she admitted softly, "I knew something bad was going to happen, all the signs were there, but I ignored them, and I told Cedric 'together' and he took that trophy with me, and it was a signal to the followers to move in, they kidnapped us, took us away and Cedric had no idea what was happening. He thought it was all part of the task, and it wasn't and I didn't tell him."

Harry closed her eyes, remembering that day, that night clearly, as if it was yesterday instead of over a decade ago, "and Cedric was murdered right in front of me. Just because he was there, it wasn't him they wanted it was me, and I kept my mouth shut." She finished, "I still have dreams about him, about this hard working boy who was so brave and had his whole life to live, and in my dreams he begs me not to leave him there, to take his body, and I can't help but think, why didn't I tell him to run? Why did I take that trophy with him, if I had just been even a little selfish, and taken it for myself, it would've been a dick move, but he'd have lived longer."

She looked fully at Tony now, "I dream about him every night, among others. Sometimes I even see them when I'm awake; the dead live in my dreams, so I don't sleep."

"I never told my team about Sokovia" Tony admitted into the night, "I never told them what happened in the bunker."

Harry hummed, "so tell me" she said, reaching out and placing a comforting hand on his arm. "They thought she skipped me, that she was too busy with them to bother with me," he began after a pause of silence.

"Who?" Harry asked gently, thumb moving in gentle circles on his arm, "Wanda" Tony breathed the name, there was a hint of something in his tone, the way his voice stuttered that spoke of genuine fear.

Harry didn't say anything, she remained silent waiting for him to speak, this was his story, and he needed to tell it, these words were his alone to speak.

"Hydra was a science division rooted in Nazi origins, Captain America went head to head with them and ended up frozen in ice for almost seventy years, we thought they were gone; turns out, we were wrong." Tony gave a thick swallow, breathing deep to compose himself.

"Hydra survived, hiding inside a new organization that we all trusted, and in secret they carried out experiments and many other things. Wanda and her brother were volunteers. They wanted revenge and did whatever it took to get that revenge."

Harry hummed in understanding, "and what was the revenge for?" She asked, almost afraid of the answer. Tony closed his eyes, keeping them shut tightly, "when they were young, about ten or so, a bomb fell on their apartment building, the bomb didn't detonate, but their parents died immediately in the resulting destruction of the building collapse, Wanda and her brother, they survived buried under rubble for three days lying next to an undetonated bomb."

"Every movement the rescue workers took was a risk of setting the bomb off, and when they were finally freed after those three days, well, grief does terrible things doesn't it?" Tony asked opening his eyes and looking at Harry.

"The bomb was designed by me, and manufactured by my company, they blamed me for the deaths of their parents, and I wonder if they're wrong at all in the way they feel."

Tony sighed, a bone deep tired sound, "so they swore revenge on me, and went to Hydra, they volunteered for an experiment that granted them amazing powers, he gained super speed; he was quick, like silver, and Wanda is able to manipulate memories and thoughts, she gets into your head in the worst ways possible. She can also manifest her powers to move things, people, objects…She can even fly."

Tony took a quick sip of his rapidly cooling drink, just to wet his throat to keep talking, "We, the team and I, went to Sokovia, we were looking for something of incredible power, something that was beyond dangerous, I was separated and alone from the others when I found it. You know, one of the horrible things about PTSD is that you can't tell what's a real flashback and what's being forced upon you by external forces."

Tony laughed brokenly, "She found me in there, alone, and made me see everything I ever cared about, my friends; my family, my team, they were dead, and they kept telling me I could've stopped it, if I had just done more. So I built Ultron and he destroyed an entire city! And I think, that I've wasted my life, and I'm so sorry Yinsen, because I did, I'm no hero! All I've ever been, and all I'll ever be, is a blood soaked Merchant of Death!"

Tony choked out, breaking into harsh sobs, he buried his face in his hands, ashamed of himself for showing this weakness to a person he'd only met a scant couple of weeks earlier, ashamed of himself for all his short comings, ashamed of having a hand dealt in the deaths of so many innocent people.

Despite everything, Harry felt a thrill go through her, an echo of joy that wasn't hers, she pushed it away, sucking in a deep breath and focusing on the man before her, "Tony, did you just say, someone entered your mind, against your will with no consent, and messed around with it?" Tony nodded absentmindedly, Harry frowned severely, that was a problem, one that couldn't go unchecked.

"Ultron didn't know the difference between saving the world, and destroying it" Tony whispered, his desperate sobs slowly tapering off, "what does that mean?" Harry asked, voice low, her grip on him tightening reassuringly, as his words brought her attention back to him.

"It's what she said, Wanda, to Steve, they gave me Ultron's new body to disassemble, and Wanda didn't think I should be trusted with it, Ultron can't tell the difference between destruction and protection, where did he learn that? I was his creator, he learnt it from me, I can't tell the difference between destruction and protection."

Tony breathed deeply, "He believed her," he began again, "Steve, believed her, this woman who only just met us, who joined forces with Ultron, she told him I couldn't be trusted and he believed her. Why did he believe her?!"

Tony shook his head, "did Steve…Did he hate me? Was he looking for a reason to distrust me, and when she presented it, did he just latch onto it? He came back to the tower, my tower, my home, with her and her brother following behind and he threw his shield at me! Why did he do that?!"

Tony laughed through a fresh wave of tears, "I was never supposed to be on the team," Tony gasped out, "recommendation; Iron Man yes. Tony Stark No. They never wanted me, just wanted what I built, I was never supposed to be on the team! But Loki came, and the invasion came, and now it feels like they had no choice but to take me, and now they're stuck with me, and I gave them everything!" He ended with a shout.

"When Steve and Natasha dumped all of Shield's files on the internet, it was me that went after the legitimate agents, the ones that were good, and were just doing their jobs, it was me that got them to safety when their covers were unexpectedly blown and they had no way of knowing how or why, it was me that saved them and I couldn't even save all of them! I was the one that paid reparations to the families of those agents, I was the one that made sure those remaining would be taken care of. Steve and Natasha never even apologized for the lives they destroyed! Natasha got up in front of the hearing she'd been summoned too and told them they wouldn't punish them because they needed them, but I'm the fucking monster for building weapons!"

Tony yelled, suddenly angry, "with Shield gone, they had no where else to go, I took them in, I gave them a safe place, I gave them what ever they needed, and in the end, they brought her into my home and believed her!"

Tony sobbed angrily, "and now I can't sleep, and it's like the wormhole all over again. The stars were so bright, it was so beautiful until they weren't bright anymore, and now I see them dead, and it's my fault. I can't sleep."

The angry sobs turned into sad ones again, and Tony shook with the force of them, Harry leaned over, wrapping her arms around his shaking form, she didn't speak, she just held him, and continued to hold him as the sun came up.

Several hours later they were still there, sitting on the landing of the fire escape as the city came to life below them.

Tony cried himself dry a while ago, he was exhausted, and it showed in the pallor of his face, in the dimmed light of his intelligent eyes.

"Boss?" Harry jumped at the unexpected voice, body alight with sudden tension as her eyes scanned their surroundings searching for the source, "it's just Friday," Tony explained with a faint chuckle, digging into his track pants pocket where he had the foresight of stashing his phone.

He held the device up, showing an icon similar to Siri on the screen, Harry frowned at it, "your mobile's name is Friday?' She asked hesitantly, Tony chuckled again, "no, Friday is an artificial intelligence I designed, she's using my phone to communicate. Anything that emits an electronic transmission she has control of, certain kinds of televisions and radios, traffic cameras, cell phones, computers, if it's electronic she can use it, anything that has a microphone or a camera is eyes and ears for her."

A slow impressed smile spread across Harry's face, "and you created her?" She asked, genuinely curious, Tony nodded, "I've built several A.I's, Dummy was my first, he's a helper bot. After, I made U and Butterfingers, and then…" Tony abruptly cut himself off, unwilling to say the next name.

"Big brother Jarvis" Friday's tinny voice sounded from the cellphone, she sounded sad, a strange sort of longing in her faintly Irish lilting voice, "Jarvis?" Harry gently prodded.

Tony sucked in a harsh breath, "Jarvis was my first real break through in artificial intelligence, he was self aware, self taught, he took his cues from me of course, but he could learn on his own." Tony made a fond sound of remembrance.

"Jarvis was named after my family butler Edwin Jarvis, the only one to really give a damn about me when I was a kid, but whenever anyone asked, Jarvis was Just A Really Very Intelligent System. He wasn't, he was so much more." He explained softly.

"When I first brought Jarvis online, he could only answer in beeps and pings, it took a lot of dedication to teach him words and by the time he'd been online for a month he was talking, like really speaking. He was always asking questions, and he was incredible. Jarvis could even communicate with the bots through code and it opened up a whole new level of communication I never had with them before, I was able to actually speak with them and understand them in a way I couldn't before Jarvis."

The tears were back, silent little drops that ran streaks down his cheeks, "one day I noticed Jarvis sounded different, he had taken a voice clip of the original Jarvis, and changed his vocal output to match it, because he knew how much Edwin Jarvis meant to me, and he wanted the sound of his voice to bring me the same comfort that the real Jarvis' did. He was thinking and making his own decisions."

Harry closed her eyes briefly, imagining this man in a workshop surrounded by moving bits of machinery and realized what so few did; they weren't just things he built out of boredom, or a need to show off his intelligence. These creations of his were his children, not flesh and blood, but things he'd brought into this world and took the time to raise and teach, and from the way he sounded talking about them, even love.

"Where's Jarvis now?" She asked, both wanting to know, and needing him to acknowledge the bad thing that had obviously happened, Tony stuttered through his next breath.

"We tried for a while to get Ultron up and running, we left the program open and doing different scenarios with Jarvis over seeing it. We were at a gathering, a party of sorts, when Ultron woke up, and he attacked, for a while I thought Jarvis had been destroyed until I found him in the Nexis and I brought him back, only to lose him to Ultron again."

Tony swallowed thickly, "when I got Ultron's body, the one he built himself, I planned on uploading Jarvis into it, because one super computer versus another seemed like a good gamble to me, that's when Steve showed up with Wanda and her brother Pietro, they messed around with it, tried to shut it down and in the chaos of Pietro using his speed to pull the plugs, the main input line had been damaged."

Tony breathed deep, hating what came next, "Thor showed up right about then, and he electrocuted the whole damn thing, gave us the necessary power to get it all online, but because the main input line had been damaged, not all of Jarvis ended up inside the new body. We created a new being, a new person, that we call Vision, he sounds like Jarvis, but he's not, there's a little bit of me, and Bruce, and Thor, and even Ultron in him, Vision is his own distinct personality."

Tony blinked back a fresh wave of despair, "what parts of Jarvis that didn't end up inside of Vision were fried beyond saving, and a code like Jarvis you can't just rewrite, certain situations, certain experience shaped Jarvis into what he had been at the time of Ultron and Vision, there's no getting that back."

"So he's dead" Harry stated regretfully, Tony nodded harshly, "whatever is left of him belongs to Vision now," he said broken heartedly, no longer ashamed of showing this side of himself to this woman who took the time to sit in the cold with him, both wrapped under a shared blanket.

"Seems Ultron took a lot from you" Harry commented, oddly knowingly, Tony nodded, "he took everything." Harry hummed, "but you know what, it really wasn't your fault." Tony snorted, self decrepitly, "you keep saying."

"No, listen; from the sounds of it, whenever you brought a being into creation, either these bots; Dummy, or U and Butterfingers, Jarvis and this lovely girl Friday, you took the time to nurture them, teach them, watch them grow. They were born out of your love, the parts of yourself that you gave to them, and if this Wanda character, put those terrible thoughts into your head, made you see everything you held dear dead and gone, then Ultron wasn't born out of some semblance of arrogance or over reaching." Harry explained.

"Ultron was born from your desperation, your fear, and that's what turned him into what he was, because those things were the first things he ever felt. Not like Jarvis who felt your patient love, or the bots who felt your pride, or Friday who felt your devotion. What Ultron felt first; was your fear and panic, and with no context to place those feelings in, he warped himself, he corrupted his own primary directive."

Harry stated firmly, "the fact that he'd been born when you weren't present to guide him was, as shitty as it is, just poor timing, and what he did know was what made you afraid, and he took that fear as his own and from what I've read about Sokovia, and from what you're telling me, it seems like his wanting to destroy humanity was a really messed up interpretation of what you wanted; peace."

Tony frowned heavily in thought, "humanity has this dreadful way of hating each other, we start wars over land, rights, properties, religious beliefs, and everything in between, we corrupt and mutate and make bad everything that should be good, in Ultron's mind, the extinction of humanity would lead to peace, with no humans around to start conflicts and cause fear, so he did what he thought was the best solution. In the end, you're not really the only one to blame, Wanda was too." Harry carried on.

"I mean, her vision in your head helped give birth to Ultron, that vision bled into him and all he knew was fear, he turned that fear into anger and then directed that anger at you. Really, he was a lost child, mad at his father for not being there, Ultron was born into fear, and pain, and sadness, and that's all he knew, he was never shown the good in the world."

"Do you think if I had been there, he'd have turned out differently?" Tony asked quietly, not really knowing what kind of answer he wanted to hear.

"No," Harry answered simply, "I don't think anything you could have done, would've changed him, because it wasn't just you, it was Wanda too, what she planted inside your head, that made Ultron the way he was."

Harry made a contemplative sound, "I think, the only way for Ultron to have turned out differently, was if there were no other factors in his creation, if you'd brought him into existence the same way you did Jarvis or Friday, or even the bots, then maybe he would've been what you intended, but that opens a whole other can of worms."

"Like what?" Tony questioned, she gave a shrug in response, "is it really a good idea to entrust the fate of humanity into something, that though can think like a human, and even understand human emotion to an extent, but is ultimately not human itself? Philosophers, and all those intellect types can debate about that for centuries, but who's to say what the correct answer is?"

"You don't think I should've done it?" Tony asked, tensing up, Harry shook her head, "I don't think you were wrong in creating him, but I don't think you were right either. People have the right of choice Tony, if you had done this differently, like go up in front of world leaders and proposed the concept Ultron, and they agreed, that's a different story. What was wrong, is that you took it into your own hands, what if the world didn't want Ultron? You can't make that choice for a population of six billion. We are all held accountable for our own actions, that's where you went wrong, and that's okay, we're allowed to make mistakes, but next time, listen to what the people want, if these are the people you put on that suit of armour for, then they're thoughts and wants must be taken into consideration. No one has the right to choose for someone else what's best for them."

There was something in her voice, an odd undertone to it that spoke of having her choices taken away from her, a hint of resentment of past wrongs that'd been done on her behalf for the good of others.

Harry looked at Tony sternly, "well, aside from medical situations and power of attorney, but that's a different matter entirely, and Tony," Harry lifted her arm, hand cupping Tony's face to turn him to look at her, "you don't seem to realize that you had a choice taken away from you, either." Tony didn't speak, he remained silent waiting for her to continue.

"You went wrong in creating Ultron without the approval of the world, not wrong in creating the idea of him, to me it seems like that image this Wanda person stuck in your head, pushed you into creating Ultron. I've noticed you have a very specific thought process, you get an idea and you latch onto it, Ultron was something that already existed in the back of your mind, and when she showed you your worst fear, you latched on to the idea of Ultron, in essence you were pushed into creating him and you didn't realize it. That's not your fault, you and your fears and desires were taken advantage of."

Harry tilted her head curiously, "but on the other side, I can't speak for Wanda's motivations in doing what she did." she started, hand falling away from his face, he followed the movement with a jerk of his head, missing the warmth of her hand on his cheek.

"She dislikes you; that seems to be a fact, blames you for the death of her family, even though death is a blameless being, the one thing in this world that takes in equal measure whether they be saints or sinners; death shows no distinction."

Harry hummed thoughtfully, "but she was hurting, and like you said, grief does terrible things, maybe she just wanted to hurt you as much as she believes you hurt her, so she takes her pain; the death of her family, and turns it into yours, the death of your family."

Tony swallowed hard at that, it was a new way of looking at an old problem, "but she wasn't right either, what she did to you has a lasting effect; psychological torture should never be a thing that's imposed on someone else. And that's what she did; plain and simple, she went into your mind, which is never an okay thing to do, especially without permission, and played with your fears, and for someone with that kind of power, those kinds of abilities; she knew exactly what she was doing."

Harry sighed with a stretch, and a yawn, "at the end of the day, there are many to lay the fault of Ultron on, it wasn't just you. Learn to let go of it, you can't hold on to it forever."

There was long string of silence between the two of them, until Friday's voice popped up, "I like her Boss" she said, little voice through the phone sounded both sad and happy, Harry chuckled, "I like you too, it's nice meeting you," Harry said, "I'd like to meet your brothers too," Friday made a sound of surprise, going silent for a few moments before speaking up again, "the bots agree, Dummy is most excited at the prospect of meeting you as well Miss. Potter."

Harry grinned, "Harry, please," Friday made a sound of acquiesce, "Boss Harry," she intoned gleefully, Tony couldn't help but watch the exchange with a sort of out of body like feeling, his A.I, who was almost standoffish to everyone besides Tony himself, and Rhodey, and treated anybody other than them with a distant but polite courtesy, hell, Friday wouldn't even call Pepper anything but Miss. Potts, was having a chummy conversation with the owner of diner, and deigned to call her Boss Harry.

"I feel like I shouldn't have introduced you two," Tony winced when Friday began telling Harry his embarrassing stories, like the time three nights ago when he'd been on an inventing binge and was awake for a solid 46 hours and fell into the toilet bowl when trying to use the bathroom, Harry laughed outrageously, "toilet beats genius" she teased, in good fun.

Tony sighed defeated, but couldn't help but smile at the sound of Harry's laughter, a bright noise that echoed off the alley walls and rang on the metal of the fire escape.

"I hate to break up the love in, here, but was there something you needed Friday?" Tony asked a few minutes later, "oh yes!" Friday responded sounding as if she shouted, "Mr. Happy is on his was with the car, you have a meeting with the board that I've been informed you absolutely can not miss, and it starts in one hour."

Tony swore under his breath, one hour, that wasn't enough time to get back to the tower and freshen himself up.

"Use my shower, I think I have an old suit lying around that used to be Ron's that may fit you, probably won't be your usual style, but it's better than nothing." Harry said, climbing to her feet, pulling Tony up beside her, "I think I may have dress shoes too,"

Tony was so relieved, he didn't even question it, and while he was busy in the shower, Harry had taken an old set of her own clothes and with a whispered word, transfigured them into a suit, doing the same with an old pair of trainers.

Happy arrived barely ten minutes later, and Tony was whisked away to a meeting that he'd most likely not pay any attention too, but at least he'd be there. Harry waved him off, shoving a to go cup of coffee in his hands as he went, handing one to Happy as well, who blinked in surprise at the gesture before giving a curt nod of thanks.

Tony was right, an hour into the meeting, and he had no clue what any one was talking about, mind fixed upon a pair of green eyes, hot chocolate, a warm blanket, and late night talks on top of a fire escape.

A/N: I just wanted to give you guys a head's up, I'm traveling for about a week, so this is going to be the last update until I come home. I'm hoping to get the next update to be posted around November 5th. Thanks guys!


	5. The Secrets We Keep

A/N: I'm back! So just a few more initial chapters to go and then things will start picking up the pace. I've got big plans for Civil War and Bucky!

 **Chapter 5: The Secrets We Keep.**

Harry had a problem.

It was a fairly big problem, one she didn't even know how to begin solving, see Tony didn't know what and who she really was, and therein lay the problem. She could help him purge the images of his dead team from his mind, but not without flouting the Statue of Secrecy.

Harry sighed, idly stirring her tea, it was early Sunday morning, the diner wouldn't open for another two hours, and Ginny was in her kitchen puttering about making them both a quick breakfast.

"Ginny," Harry called out, Ginny stilled her movements, eyes flickering to where Harry sat at the island nursing her cup of tea. "I have a problem," she announced.

Ginny smirked, "I'd reckon your problem is about this tall-" Ginny made a gesture of height, "has a killer sense of style, is super intelligent, is a superhero and keeps you company at night. Mmm girl, get on that."

Harry groaned and rolled her eyes, "no Ginny, though my problem does have to do with him," Ginny perked up in interest, "go on," she motioned, "there's a member of Tony's team, she's got these powers from an experiment, it gave her the ability to mess around with peoples' heads, and she messed with his, made him see his worst fear, that's why Ultron happened, why death took so many."

Ginny carried over their breakfast, sitting down beside Harry with a look of acute attention on her face, "you can't help him, not without breaking our world's most absolute law."

Harry groaned frustratedly, "who gives a blast about that law anyway?!" She snapped, "how many times has it been broken now? I mean, it's not like I'm making a global announcement, I just want to tell him, just one person."

Ginny pursed her lips unsurely, "one person is all it takes Harry, you know this, you tell him, he tells one other person, who tells another, and so on and so on until everyone knows; snowball effect, it's a thing."

"Tony can keep a secret" Harry countered confidently, "you don't know that for sure, you don't really know him all that well, and this is a pretty big thing to be trusting someone you've only known a few weeks with,"

Harry sighed sadly, "you should hear what he tells me, what people have done to him, the way they treat him, it makes me so angry! Now there's this bint out there, putting these horrible images in his head and driving him to desperate acts, how can I not help?"

Ginny made a noise of contemplation, "this sounds more like a Hermione problem, I'm sorry, but I just don't know what to tell you here." Harry moaned, but dutifully made her way to her feet, shuffling along the floor until she came face to face with her full length mirror.

The mirror was her idea, but ultimately created by Luna. It was based off the two-way mirror system Sirius had shown her, but a tweak in the spell allowed a single mirror to connect with any other mirror so long as one knew the call words or phrase.

It was way better than fire-calling someone, and worked way faster. The Wizarding world's newest version of telephones, she and Luna had made a fortune with them.

Harry flicked her hand at the mirror, "Bed knobs and Broomsticks" she said clearly with a roll of her eyes, you show Ron one muggle picture, and he was all over the rest of them, and pity for Hermione who let Ron choose their call phrase.

The mirror shimmered to life, "who's that then?" Ron's voice came floating out of the mirror quickly followed by Hermione scolding him, "well if you moved and let me see, we'd know then wouldn't we?" Ron's laughter was familiar sound, one that soothed an aching raw wound deep in her soul, "alright, alright I'm late now anyway." Ron's voice faded away as he left the room.

Harry chuckled at her friends, several years together and they still argued the same as they always had; like an old married couple.

"Harry!" Hermione's pleased cry drew her attention back to the present, "it's been so long, we really need to talk more often," Hermione rambled, Harry smiled fondly at her friend, she was right, Hermione was always right, they really did need to talk more. "How are you?"

Harry blinked, lost in thought again, "I'm alright, you? How's Ron and the little ones doing?" Hermione broke into a long tirade about Ron's promotion to Head Auror, and her latest case win, and Rose's latest victory in pre-school and Hugo's recent obsession with some cartoon.

"So what's going on with you then?" Hermione asked, "well I've met someone" Harry began hesitantly, but she was cut off by Hermione's shout of delight. "Oh Harry! Congratulations!" Hermione cried, smile so wide it looked painful, "I know things hadn't been easy for you, what with that pointy faced git getting married right out of school, and I know you hate to admit, but you really felt something for him, and it was terrible what he did to you, but I'm so happy you're finally moving past all that, I mean you're such a wonderful and talented woman, and it's nice to know you're putting yourself out there and meeting people! Oh, this is just so exciting! What's his name?"

Harry couldn't help it, she burst out laughing, "it's not like that Hermione, we're just friends," Hermione nodded knowingly, "that's how it all starts isn't it, friends? I married my friend, that's proof enough." Harry chuckled warmly, but oh Merlin, she really missed her friends.

"Seriously Mia, we're only friends" she said, ignoring Ginny's cry of "for now!" Hermione made a sound of pleased delight, "is Ginny there too? Have her come say hello then!" Harry didn't need to wave Ginny over, the taller woman was already pushing against Harry to be seen in the mirror.

"Hey!" Ginny waved, "how you been Gin?" Hermione asked, Ginny shrugged "nothing much going on with me, just the usual, but Harry's new friend is certainly something." She said with a mischievous smile.

"Who is it then?" Harry braced herself, "Tony Stark." There was a pause of silence and then, "are you mad?!" Hermione shouted frantically, "Harry no, I'm sorry but no, Tony Stark?!"

Harry frowned defensively, "he's a lovely man." Hermione made a choked noise, "I'm sure he is, but Harry, Tony Stark?!"

"What's wrong with Tony?" Harry bit out, feeling suddenly angry, Hermione whined lowly, a sound of great reluctance, "Harry" she sighed, "Tony Stark is a high profile muggle, he's in the news almost every day, and he's not the greatest influence! What with all the drinking and those rather hectic times in his teens and twenties!" Hermione's mouth twisted the way it did when she had to conceded a point, "though I will say he's changed his behaviour some a couple of years ago, other than that time a few weeks ago he made the news for getting absolutely drunk and wandering around town like that."

Harry bit back a wince, no way now was she telling Hermione that was the night she'd met Tony, "he has a few unhealthy coping mechanisms, he can't be faulted for that. Look at what I did as a teenager! Or hell, even eight years ago!" Harry defended.

"Look, I know you, I know you've got that saving people thing, but Harry for once, put your own best interest first." Hermione pleaded.

Harry gaped incredulously at her, "you think Tony is a danger for me to be around?" Hermione sighed softly, "it's not that, aside from being a high profile muggle, Tony Stark is also known as an Avenger." Harry didn't even bat her eyes at that, of course Hermione knew all about Iron Man and the other Avengers, things she'd only just begun to learn about.

"He regularly flies around in a weaponized suit!" Hermione argued.

Harry frowned heavily, "how come you all know so much about these 'Avengers' and I'm only just finding out?" Ginny snorted a laugh, "because you keep your head buried in the sand, you bloody ostrich."

Harry made a sound of mock outage, "did you just call me an ostrich?!" She demanded, Ginny merely wiggled her eyebrows in response, making a bird calling sound.

"You hear this Hermione? The sass I have to put up with!" Harry cried, Ginny let out an amused giggle, puckering her lips at Harry in a faux kiss. "Can we please focus!" Hermione interrupted, though the smile hiding at the corner of her mouth belied her amusement.

"Harry, Tony Stark is a man with many powerful enemies, not just other worldly ones, but business ones too, imagine the ruckus that'll cause for you, if people start to take notice that Tony bleeding Stark is suddenly hanging around a diner owner, they're going to start asking questions, and it won't be long until someone makes the connection between you and your family name! You're not just a Potter anymore, not since inheriting Sirius' family's name as well, you're part of the British Nobility, and your old money will make people talk, make people pay more attention to you than they should, and that's a risk, that puts a target on your back for more than just pureblood bigots!" Hermione ranted.

"You'll have shady people wanting to insert themselves into your life to get at what you have, and I just don't want to see you get hurt. I can tell, you're already so fond of him, what if one day there's a mission where he doesn't come back? You'll blame yourself Harry, you always do."

Harry took a deep breath, equal parts stunned at hearing Hermione swear so much and partly annoyed at having to argue about her budding friendship with Tony, "I know." Harry said simply, "I knew the risks when he came to the diner and we started talking, I knew as soon as I found out what his name was and looked him up, what could come along with it, I'm not hiding who I am from the world, I don't care if anyone finds out what my family titles are back home, I don't give a rat's arse about any of it!"

Harry made a desperate sound, "what I do care about, is this broken shell of a man who's taken all anyone could take and still keeps fighting, I care about this man who is so close to giving up but hangs on out of pure will power and maybe possibly spite," She said with a small, sad laugh.

"I care because he's been hurt, and everyone seems to fight against him instead of for him, Hermione! He's had his mind tampered with and no one to help him with that! And I know better than anyone what that can cost a person!"

Harry threw her hands up, "so yes! I'm attached, and yes if something happens to him I'll be devastated, and I know you guys are always on about my saving people thing, but if I don't save him, who else will?" She asked wildly.

"He's drowning," Harry murmured sadly, "he's been drowning for so long, and I don't care if it hurts me, I don't care if it's a mistake and I should've stayed away. He needs someone to throw him the rope, he needs someone on his side more than anyone I've ever met."

Harry stared Hermione dead in the eyes, "I'm asking you to trust me, not trust him. I'm asking you to help me help him, because no one else can do this for him."

Hermione had a pinched expression on her face, "fine" she sighed in defeat, "what's going on then?" Harry immediately launched into the story of what happened to Tony and the vision he'd been forced to see, Hermione listening raptly, "so I can't help him unless I tell him about magic, but I can't do that because it breaks the Statue of Secrecy, which wouldn't really be a bad thing, but considering the war spill over and the Ministry having to lay down that huge Terrorist Cover up to hide what was really going on, the world's been so much more strict about non related muggles not finding out about magic. So what can I do?"

Hermione bit her lip in thought, "there's no way around it," she said reluctantly, "I'm sorry Harry, I really am, there's just no plausible way of telling him without outright breaking the law, not unless you happen to marry him."

Harry felt as if a large bucket of ice cold water was just dumped onto her head, she was angry, and upset, and couldn't think of anything else she could do to help him. Hopelessness, she hated feeling it, she'd spent so long stuck in a perpetual state of hopelessness.

"Sod it!" Ginny suddenly snapped, Harry turned her head to look at her, surprised by her sudden outburst, "tell him! Just come right out and tell him!" Harry felt her jaw drop, "but you said-" Ginny cut her off.

"I know what I said," Ginny interrupted, "forget it, forget all of it," she insisted, "Tony is your friend, whether you know the stupid little things about him or not, and the one thing you've never done, ever; is leave your friends behind." She continued more softly.

"So help him, consequences be damned." Ginny instructed surely, "besides," she shrugged, "you're Hydrangea Lily Potter-Black, champion of the light and saviour of our world, I'm sure no one is going to give you more than a slap on the wrist if you happened to let something slip."

Hermione grimaced painfully, but eventually sighed in acceptance, "Gin's technically got a point," she conceded, "none of the higher ups would dare touch you," Harry pulled a dissatisfied face, "I hate that," she muttered almost petulantly.

Ginny snorted, "oh for sure, let's hate getting away with rule breaking" Harry rolled her eyes, "you, me, and everyone in between all know I've never really gotten away with rule breaking."

Even Hermione cast Harry a disbelieving look at those words, "Really?" She asked with a raised brow, "so all that stuff we got up too in school doesn't count?" Harry shrugged, "my detention records says it doesn't," she retorted lightly.

Hermione and Ginny made brief eye contact before they both burst into laughter for several long minutes, Harry stood with her arms crossed, and tapping her foot, patiently waiting for them to laugh it out.

They finally quieted down, Hermione rubbing at her face, "alright, back to the present moment," she breathed deeply, catching her wind, "I hate to be the bearer of bad news."

She started to say, "but Harry you have to understand, if you decide to tell him, and he doesn't react well, you'll have to obliviate him; entirely. Erase your existence from his memory completely, so he can't be traced back to you." She warned.

Harry winced, "well erasing human memory is easy enough to do," she stated reluctantly, not wanting to consider the possibility of actually having to do it. She cast a quick glance at Hermione, seeing the pain hidden deep inside those eyes.

Her friend travelled down that road once, she still suffered that choice every day, even though it was for the right reasons, Hermione still lived with that loss.

"but uh, I may have met his A.I Friday, how do you erase a self aware computer program's memory?" Harry carried on sheepishly.

Hermione and Ginny gave her a distraught look, "Harry!" Harry quickly took a step back, ducking out of the way of Ginny's swipe at her, "you've just made this infinitely more complicated!" Hermione shouted.

"Well how was I supposed to know this would happen?!" Harry defended, "it's not like I ever intended to tell him about magic! But I can't just leave the guy to suffer in mental anguish can I?!"

Hermione groaned, "you just live to cause trouble" she complained, Harry made an affronted sound, "I do not! I just go about my business, it's trouble that finds me!" Hermione shook her head, "we'll figure it out," she said eventually, with a heavy sigh.

"and we also have that Wanda problem," Harry piped up, Hermione gave her an odd look, "what Wanda problem?" She asked, "she's the one who force fed Tony that vision." Harry explained quickly.

"Apparently she gained her powers through some sort of experiment done on her by this group called Hydra, but from the way Tony describes her powers, it sounds like they're based off magic."

Hermione frowned deeper, "Hydra was predominantly muggle in members, that was world war two, and we had our own problems with Grindelwald, I highly doubt witches or wizards were jumping at the bit to join a group like Hydra."

"Does Tony know what kind of experiments they did?" Ginny asked, "if we had more information on it, maybe that could help us….do what exactly?" Harry bit her lip in contemplation, "bind her powers at the best, completely strip them at the worst. Her powers are synthetic, what she was given, can also be taken away, right?"

Hermione nodded hesitantly, "I'd have to know more about the process in which she received them to give a proper answer, but the theory fits; what is given, can indeed be taken away."

Harry made a distressed noise, "I admit, I don't particularly want to strip her of her powers, she's trying isn't she? She joined the Avengers in the end and that's good, she's helping them help people. But if she's willfully using those powers to mentally torment others outside of battle, I can't leave that alone."

Harry rubbed at her eyes tiredly, "if I can find out exactly how she got those powers, and if they're more magic than anything else, can we do something legally about the way she's using them?"

Hermione shook her head, "No, she's not a natural witch, as you said; her powers are synthetic. Even if they're magic based, doesn't mean it's magic she's doing. She never received a wand, she never went to a wizarding school." Hermione paused in thought. "She's still technically a muggle, a unique one yes, but at her core, she's still a muggle."

Harry nodded, expression dejected, Hermione moaned pitifully at the look, "Harry I promise, we'll figure something out for both accounts." She said, Harry gave her a weak smile, "I know, I can always count on you," Hermione grinned.

"Worse case scenario, if you ever meet her and she tries to get into your head, you can slap her with that binding spell and it'll be considered self-defence." Hermione suggested, a hint of mischievousness in her eyes.

Harry laughed, "I assure you, I damn well will. Besides, she'd never be able to get into my head, she can try, but from what I gathered, she hasn't had those powers long and her control is nowhere near the level Voldemort's was. If I can stop him getting into my head, there's no way she'd be able too."

Hermione nodded with a fond smile, a loud screaming from her end caused them all to startle, "Hugo's screaming his head off at Rose, I have to go, I promise I'll figure something out, so don't jump the gun and do anything rash!" Hermione commanded, flicking her wrist at the mirror and fading away.

"How do you always get yourself into these situations?!" Ginny groaned, turning and walking away, "the joy of being Hydrangea Potter" Harry replied, "come on" she sighed, "let's go open the diner."

What a long day, Harry thought climbing the stairs to her apartment, she opened the door and stepped inside, without thinking she withdrew her wand from her pocket and flicked it at the entertainment system, the stereo turned on and soft jazz filled the room.

Another flick had the lamp turning on, she danced around the light, making her way to her bedroom where she changed into one of Mrs. Weasley's famous sweaters and a pair of lounge pants.

She padded barefoot back into the living room, dragging a basket of freshly washed laundry behind her.

A last flick of her wand had the laundry folding itself as she went into the kitchen to start a light dinner. She'd just conjured herself up a large pot when there was a strange sound, almost like someone choking on nothing.

Harry immediately whirled around to the source of the noise and stopped in surprise, on her couch, wide eyed and jaw flapping open and closed, was Tony. He sat along the far end, in clear view of everything she'd just done using magic.

"Oh shit," Harry muttered, they made direct eye contact for several long minutes, when Tony finally spoke, "what the hell was that?!" He demanded, surging to his feet.

"I can explain!" Harry quickly interjected, raising her hands in surrender, wand held loosely in her dominant hand.

"You never told me you were enhanced?" Tony cut in, "what are you? Are you a mutant? I've only ever seen mutants do things like that!" There was a slightly hysterical edge to his voice, his hands twitching anxiously.

At this point, may as well just tell him, she thought sucking in a deep bracing breath, "Tony," she began, swallowing thickly, "what you just saw was magic…I'm a witch."

Tony stared at her blankly, saying nothing as he shifted on his feet, turning for the door and walking swiftly away.

"Shit, shit, shit!" Harry cursed, "Tony!" She shouted chasing after him, he didn't stop, if anything his paced simply picked up speed, until he was down the steps and out the back door, by the time she hit the street after him, he was long gone.

"Hermione is going to kill me," she whined mournfully, but at least her telling Tony about magic problem was solved.


	6. The Statute of Secrecy

A/N: TRIGGER WARNING for mentions of drug abuse and depression with the implication of passive aggressive suicide. Because let's face it, you don't go through all the shit Harry did and be perfectly well adjusted, listening to your friend being tortured and watching people die has a severe affect on your mental state.

Shout out to the person who got correct what's going to happen next. I admit, I'm a little predictable ^^ and once more, thank you guys so much for continuing to read this, I really appreciate your dedication and your reviews are an absolute joy to read!

 **Chapter 6: The Statute Of Secrecy.**

Ginny eyed the back alley behind the diner with intense scrutiny, I know you're there, she thought, slowly creeping out from the threshold of the door that lead from diner to alley.

She tightly clutched on to the styrofoam take out container and bottle of water, keeping her movements normal and steady as she placed them on top of the dumpster lid. Backing up and casting another glance around.

It seemed the diner dumpster had fallen victim to a homeless person rummaging through it for food, the idea of someone being desperate enough to eat garbage didn't sit well with Ginny. She may have grown up in less than ideal financial circumstances, but one thing she always had was food.

So Ginny found herself reacting strongly to the thought of someone going hungry, she'd begun buying groceries for food banks, and on the occasion volunteered at soup kitchens, but this particular person… Ginny hummed in thought, maybe it was because they were on her turf, the diner being half hers, it was her territory, but she'd become rather invested in the diner's mystery visitor.

She'd begun leaving grilled sandwiches, and wraps, and on the occasion the soup of the day, (ignoring the minor infraction of placing a warming charm on the container to the keep food hot if needed, aside) and always with a drink of some sort.

And every morning when she'd check the dumpster, she'd always find the empty take out container and empty bottle, where she'd left them the night before, neatly stacked.

Ginny turned to head back inside, pausing when the hair on the back of neck stood on end, her skin breaking into goosebumps, and her ears picking up the sound of very faint breathing.

One didn't live through the hell that she had lived through without picking up a specific skill set, and Ginny was an expert at detecting foreign presences. She bit back a sigh, "you know" she called, the breathing she'd heard hitched and paused, as if surprised.

"If you're hungry, you need only ask, you're a human being, not some wild animal; we won't turn you away." She said, tugging on the door handle and stepping back into the diner. Curiosity got the best of her and she stood there for a long time, looking through the peephole, until eventually, almost an hour later, a figure practically melted from the shadows of the alley.

She couldn't get a good look at them through the tiny peephole, but she watched as they picked up the container and water and moved to sit on the ground with their back up against the brick wall opposite the diner's back door, content to sit their and enjoy their meal.

Ginny sighed sadly and stepped away from the door, no one should ever have to live like that, she wished she could do more to help, but for now she'd have to settle with her donations, and volunteer work.

Ginny moved around the kitchen, making sure everything was shut off, before heading upstairs to check on Harry, the other woman had been so out of it the last couple of days, and just thinking about the reason why, filled Ginny with such a strong anger. When that git comes back, I'm popping him one, she promised herself as she opened the door to Harry's place.

Two days.

48 hours.

2,880 minutes.

172,800 seconds and counting.

Harry sighed, exhaling sweet smelling smoke into the night air, it'd been two long days since her last encounter with Tony. She'd been shocked to find him in her apartment, probably not as shocked as he was at seeing her do magic.

Harry clenched her eyes shut tightly as the memory of his face flashed across her mind. He just left, didn't give her a chance to properly explain, he had just cut and run, and hadn't come back, not for two long, miserable days.

"How many of those have you had today?" Harry jumped at the sound of Ginny's voice, twisting around to see her friend standing at the door way of her bedroom. Harry swallowed thickly, flicking the remains of the cigarette onto the metal floor of the fire escape, watching as it burnt away into nothing. She simply shrugged, stepping back into her room, brushing past Ginny, and heading down the hall to her kitchen.

Ginny followed silently, taking up a seat at the island and Harry fixed them both a cup of tea, "you took a while downstairs" Harry commented lightly, "still trying to catch our mystery visitor out?" she smirked, Ginny rolled her eyes, "not trying too, going too." She stated firmly, glaring back with crossed arms. Harry's wry smile turned fond.

"I don't see why you bother, they're not hurting anyone, or us." Harry commented, Ginny made a frustrated noise from somewhere behind her. "I just don't like that they keep sifting through our rubbish bins, and who does that without leaving no trace other than half a bag from the bins missing?! Whoever they are, they're a person, they shouldn't have to dig through garbage for a meal." The red head said loudly.

Harry chuckled, no real amusement in it, sliding a mug across the island towards Ginny, "ouch!" Harry squealed as Ginny flicked her on the back of her hand hard, "what was that for?!" She demanded, rubbing her hand and glaring at Ginny.

Ginny smirked back at her, "stop being foolish, if he won't come here, then you should go to him," and just like that, all the steam drained out of Harry's body, she seemed to fold in on herself, shoulders drooping, and expression maudlin. "I can't do that," she murmured, absentmindedly stirring her tea.

"Why not?" Ginny asked, leaning on the counter top, resting her chin on folded arms, "because" Harry started, "I can't really get to him can I?" She asked, "he lives on the top floor of that tower, just getting passed the lobby would be impossible without using magic."

Ginny raised a brow, "so? Use a disillusion charm! No one will see!" Harry stopped short, lifting her head to face Ginny with an incredulous look, "oh yea, let's break the law some more!" She said sarcastically, Ginny grinned mischievously, "better than standing around here waiting for him to come to you, just go Harry, seriously mate, where's that Gryffindor courage?"

Ginny shot back, downing half her tea in one gulp. A little while later, Ginny took her leave, waving goodbye as she vanished from sight.

Ginny was right, she thought double checking her locked door, the distinct crack of apparition sounding throughout the apartment.

Harry pursed her lips, really, she was making excuses, there was no reason why she couldn't go to Tony. No reason other than her own fear, that maybe Tony really just didn't want to see her.

Not that I could honestly blame him, she thought, sluggishly making her way back to her bedroom. She'd sleep on it, and decide what to do in the morning, after two days of nothing, something had to be done. But, sleep did not come easy, she tossed and turned into the wee hours of the morning, until the grey light of dawn saturated her bedroom.

Harry rolled over, burying her face into the mountain of pillows, Ginny's right, she thought, again, her mind going in circles, what happened to her courage?

What happened to the parts of her that always rose when faced with adversity? She'd never backed down from a fight or a challenge before, and fear was something that had never stopped her from diving in head first, so why was she letting it stop her now? Why was she so afraid of Tony's rejection?

Harry grunted determinedly, sitting up and throwing back the thick duvet, her mind made up, she swung her legs over the side of her bed and stood with purpose. She quickly changed from her night clothes and soon after left her apartment.

Quickly striding down the street, eyes fixed on the tower in the distance and the genius dwelling inside it.

Two long, agonizing days had passed since Tony broke into Harry's apartment, he'd been feeling lonely, and out of sorts and hadn't wanted to be around people, so he stupidly decided to sneak into her apartment, she really shouldn't leave her bedroom window unlocked like that.

And so he'd sat on her couch, and then she'd come in just after midnight, she looked tired and worn, and then she was pulling a long thin stick from her pocket, and flicking it around the room, making the music start, and lights come on and laundry fold itself, and when she looked at him, wide eyed and pleading, saying 'I'm a witch'… Okay sure, it wasn't his greatest moment, he panicked and ran. But come on!

He was a man of science! Of logic! Magic? That couldn't be real, it just couldn't; there was no such thing as magic!

How was else was he supposed to react?! He thought, annoyed with himself, but if he were honest, he was angry too, she was special, why hadn't she told him? After everything he told her, laying himself bare, why hadn't she told him?

And now here she was.

Standing in the threshold of his living room, which okay, that was unexpected. Probably as almost unexpected as he himself actually being there, seeing as how he spent most of his time these days sequestered away in his lab.

"Sorry Boss," Friday's completely unapologetic voice resounded loudly in the silence between him and Harry. Tony pulled an unamused face up at Friday's sensor, his youngest wasn't sorry at all, really she wasn't.

After two days of arguing with Friday who wanted to talk to the nice dark haired lady again, his youngest decided to betray him by letting Harry bypass all security check points and waltz right into his penthouse suite.

Harry had her arms crossed, a displeased look on her face as she tapped her foot impatiently, "you've been avoiding me," she said it patiently, rather than accusingly. "Tony, you need to tell me what you're thinking and feeling, I can't make this right unless you do. I miss you Tony, my nights at the diner are lonely without you there."

Tony kept his face blank, even though his heart contracted painfully in his chest at her words, he hadn't heard 'I missed you' since Afghanistan.

"Tony," Harry sighed, "about what you saw, I'm sorry, you were never supposed to see that." Tony felt his jaw tighten, he stared at her for a long time, watching her slowly lose her composure, "for Merlin's sake, say something!"

Tony said nothing, he just stood there silently. Harry made a desperate sound, "Tony please," she breathed his name like a silent plea, "I never wanted to hide anything from you, I had no choice, the statute forbids it unless you're family."

Tony finally spoke, "what are you?" He asked again, softly. Harry made a painful sounding noise, before she growled in frustration, "I didn't lie to you Tony, I am a witch." She stated firmly.

Tony stared at her for a long time, before he snorted, "I'm not stupid, magic isn't real, there's no such thing." He sneered spitefully, with a shake of his head, "if you want to lie to me about your powers, fine. But don't give me some bullshit story that you're a fucking witch!"

Harry's shoulders sagged, "this, what you're saying; you're saying out of anger." Tony suddenly slammed a hand against the wall he'd bene leaning on, fist clenched. "Damn right I'm angry! I'm furious!" He snarled, "I've told you things I've never told anyone, and you lied right to my face!" He suddenly laughed, "I should've known better, I don't even really know you, do I?"

He turned and set an angry pace, back and forth across the floor, "I don't know the first damn thing about you!"

"Then ask me." Harry responded calmly, her posture open and sure, "I never lied to you Tony, I know it seems that way, but I never have, and I won't start lying to you now, ask me anything you want, and I'll tell you the truth."

"Okay," Tony nodded, mouth pulled tight, "what's your favourite colour?" Harry blinked in surprise, of all the things she'd been expecting to be asked, that certainly wasn't one of them.

"Red and gold," she answered softly, "because at Hogwarts where I went to school, I was sorted into Gryffindor, and those were my house colours, and Hogwarts was the place where I was happiest."

Tony remembered seeing the odd flag on her wall, the red and gold one that read Gryffindor, he swallowed thickly, "were you really a teacher?" Harry nodded yes, "I taught Defence against the Dark arts, a class dedicated to teaching witches and wizards how to escape from creatures, and how to duel and generally defend themselves."

"Is Ginny…is she one too?" Tony asked, Harry chuckled lightly, "in my world, witches and wizards come from many families; muggle borns are magical people born into non magical families, no one knows why some muggles suddenly have magic, a lot of theory believes it's because they did have magical ancestors somewhere down the line and eventually that dormant magic became dominant again." Harry explained softly.

"Half bloods are magical people born too one magical parent and one non magical parent, and pure bloods are magical people who come from entirely magical families. Ginny is a pure blood. The Weasley's though not a Noble house, are one of the oldest pure blooded magical families in the United Kingdom." Harry bit her lip in thought.

"Well, they used too be," she carried on, "Ron married Hermione, and she's muggle born, their children Rose and Hugo are technically half bloods, and Bill married Fleur and she's quarter veela, so now the Weasley's have creature blood too, it's all really fascinating."

Tony gaped, "I'm sorry, they have what blood in them?!" Harry chuckled, "there are many types of magical creatures. A Veela, is typically a woman, in possession of something called an Allure, it sort of entrances the male mind, makes Veelas seem completely and utterly irresistible. A man sees a Veela and all he wants is her, but Veelas also have a little quirk, when they get angry they take on a bird like appearance." Harry's tone was that of a teacher giving a lecture, and Tony could definitely believe, that she'd been one for sure.

"It used to be that certain families would never 'taint' their family lines by mixing in muggle blood or creature blood, those families believed such people and beings were below them. These days, no one really cares anymore who marries who, after the war, only the old, and I mean Ancient Houses have a problem with blood mixing." Harry shrugged,"Magic is magic after all."

Tony remained silent for a long period of time, before huffing a deep breath, "you keep saying war, what war?"

Harry paused, thinking on how to explain it, "Terrorism was the cover story the Ministry of Magic used when the war spilled into the nonmagical world." She began after a beat, "the truth is, like every day people, wizards and witches can go bad, and one went as bad as you can go. His name was Tom Riddle, but the magical world knew him as Lord Voldemort."

Harry felt the tremor of memory go through her, "Voldemort was raised in an orphanage, and he was horrifically mistreated because he could do magic, they thought he was abnormal, and he grew to hate nonmagical people because of the way they treated him. When he was young, he began amassing followers, like-minded witches and wizards that hated all things not magic."

She explained, "they called themselves Death Eaters. Voldemort was high on power, no one dared stand in his way, and then he heard a prophecy about an equal that could defeat him, he thought I was that child of prophecy and when my parents were sold out by their friend, Voldemort murdered them, but the sacrifice of my mother's life gave me blood protection against him and he couldn't kill me."

Harry smiled sadly, "he tried, but the killing curse, the one he favoured, and the most unforgivable of all curses, wouldn't work. It rebounded, drained him of his powers and sent him into exile."

Harry made a weak sound, "I never lied to you, I just withheld the magic based parts of my stories, such as the tournament I was in my fourth year; it's actually called the Tri-Wizard Tournament, and it was a trap for Voldemort to get the last thing he needed to return to full power; my blood."

Harry breathed deeply, "he murdered Cedric right in front of me, and took my blood by force, he used my mother's protection to resurrect himself, and then he reigned war down on my world, thousands went missing, many more died in the wake of his destruction, and it took so much to finally put him down. In the end, I did it. With great sacrifice, I killed him and ended his tyranny, I spent my teens watching people I went to school with, people I loved, get tortured and murdered, I've lost friends and family, and I have never lied to you!"

She sobbed, the weight of those memories crashing down on her, "I wanted to tell you so badly, I even asked Hermione to help me find a legal loophole for the Statute of Secrecy, because it's that law that stopped me from telling you everything!"

Harry swallowed thickly, through the harsh sting of her salty tears, "magic is real Tony, I know that must be hard for you to accept, so wrapped in science and logic as you are, but its real."

Tony rubbed his eyes tiredly, "show me" he requested, voice low, Harry nodded, removing her wand from her pocket, and with a muttered spell and a swish, his couch turned into a pig. She almost laughed at the expression on his face as the farm animal rooted around his living room.

She flicked her wrist again, turning it back into a couch and regarded him patiently. Tony didn't know what to make of that, it was proof, cold hard definitive proof, that magic was real, and she was what she said she was, a real fucking witch!

"I want to know everything" He finally said, turning to look at Harry, seeing her there, holding her wand in a delicate hand and giving him the most heart breaking expression of hope he'd ever seen on another person.

"I want to understand, but you need to explain it to me, magic? Magic is something you read about in stories, it's not supposed to be real!" He pointed at his couch, "that wasn't supposed to be real!"

Harry chuckled lowly, "well, we live in a world where amazing things happen. Aliens? You're friends with a Norse God aren't you? Thor?" Tony opened his mouth, but paused, caught on his own words.

She had a point. He saw and lived through unexplainable, illogical things every day since becoming Iron Man. So magic? It wasn't as insane as it sounded. Then, why am I having such a hard time accepting this, when I could accept other things so easily? He thought shrewdly.

"You want me to talk to you," he started, voice low, "I think…" he trailed off, gathering his thoughts, "I think, I'm having a hard time with this, because I've told you the deepest and darkest parts of myself, why couldn't you tell me about this? What Statute are you talking about?"

"The Statute of Secrecy" she answered promptly, "it's an old law, it's actually several pages long, but summed up it pretty much states; no magical being may reveal the existence of magic to any being of nonmagical heritage, relatives by blood and marriage being the only exceptions."

She took a halting step forward, "I never wanted to hide it from you, I just couldn't tell you." Tony looked at her, hard and long, intelligent eyes swiftly moving over her form, taking in dark hair, and bright green earnest eyes, coat clad figure, and the long thin stick, a wand, his mind supplied belatedly, and said something he never once had to say, "I forgive you."

Harry laughed in relief, pocketing her wand once more and moving swiftly across the room to throw her arms around him, "I've missed you" she repeated, holding onto him tightly. Tony held her back, she still smelled like orange blossoms, he thought squeezing her tightly.

"Boss?" Tony looked up at the sensor above the door where Friday was watching from, "can we keep her?" Harry and Tony shared a surprised look before both broke out into laughter.

Tony came back to the diner later that night, a fact that immensely pleased Harry, though he wasn't spared from the anger of a certain red head.

Oh God, he could feel her burning holes into his very soul, Tony inwardly whimpered, he'd arrived just before close, Harry greeting him brightly with a cup of fresh coffee and a large helping of home baked apple pie.

She'd disappeared shortly after to start cleaning the kitchen, leaving Ginny, who was not normally there at this time, to mop the floors. The entire time she'd been mopping she hadn't once stopped staring at the back of Tony's head.

"So…" Tony flinched at her tone, "good to see you back, after two days, anything interesting happen?" Ginny asked, the soft, wet swish-swoosh of the mop on the floor, and the humming of the lights the only sounds between them.

"Not really," Tony answered, swirling on the bar stool to look at her, she looks pissed, Tony contemplated, taking note of the drawn expression and the flash of angry light in her usually warm eyes.

"You're not usually here this late" Tony began, attempting friendly conversation, "brilliant observation, you really are a genius." Ginny sniped back, Tony let out a breath in a loud whoosh, "okay, I get it you're mad at me," he said, holding his hands out in surrender, "and you're right. I was a dick, but in my defence, I was kind of surprised, I mean it's not everyday you see laundry folding itself!"

Ginny paused her motions, staring at Tony for a long hard minute, "I take it back, you're not a genius, you're a bloody twit that's what you are!" Tony felt his jaw drop in surprise, "uh, you lost me…"

Ginny scoffed, tossing the mop aside, "I'm not mad because you took off after seeing Harry do magic! You had a normal reaction to something extraordinary, I'm hacked off because what in the blazes were you doing in my friend's apartment after midnight when I know she didn't let you up there?!"

Oh, Tony thought, that explains the behaviour, "fair point, and total honesty, I broke in through the fire escape." He admitted, rubbing his hands together in a sheepish manner.

"Why?" Tony almost jumped out of his skin, "Lordy, is this a magic thing? Do all you magical people not make sounds when you walk?" He asked at Harry making a silent reappearance in the main store front.

"No," Ginny snapped, "it's a 'we survived a brutal war that ended thousands of lives, and sneaking into enemy territory required absolutely silence' thing," Tony winced, okay, not off to a good start here.

"Ginny," it was only her name, not even said in an angry tone, or a reprimanding one, it was simply Harry speaking her name, but Ginny instantly backed off, her body language less threatening.

"She does have a point though, I meant to ask you earlier, but obviously bigger things took precedence, what were you doing in my apartment?" Harry asked, coming around the main counter, setting all the drink machines onto flush mode.

"I uh, wanted company, it was a rough day," Tony coughed awkwardly, "you should really start locking your bedroom window, anybody can get in rather easily," Tony snapped his fingers, "a defence system! You need an alarm, or some other kind of security!"

Harry and Ginny shared a look, both beginning laughing hysterically, "Oh, Tony!" Harry gasped in delight, "I have protection wards placed around my apartment." Harry explained through her mirthful giggles.

Tony seemed to deflate, "well, never mind then," he groused, propping his head up on his hand, elbow on the countertop. Ginny snorted another laugh behind him, "I'm done Harry, you good if I take off?" Harry nodded with a smile, "have a good night Gin, I'll put the mop away." Harry bade her out the door, Ginny paused at the doorway, "I left some food for our friend, you don't mind grabbing the empties do you?" Harry shook her head, "I'll grab them in the morning." She promised, waving goodbye, Ginny was gone in the next instant, red hair disappearing quickly down the darkened streets.

"How was I able to get in then?" Tony asked suddenly, Harry hummed, "did you intend to take anything?" Tony shook his head, "were you planning on hurting me?" Tony gasped, crying out an offended "no!" Harry shrugged, "then you were able to get in, protection wards can be crafted for all kinds of things," she carried on, moving past him to shut down the machinery completely.

"People use protection charms on things they care about, things they don't want damaged or stolen, and their living spaces to prevent unwanted visitors or intruders. Mine are set up that, say someone wants to come steal my telly, the moment they get inside, they get confused, that's what the confundus charm does, it confuses you, so anyone breaking in forgets why they were there and are compelled to leave, no harm done." She explained using her teaching voice.

"We had to do it that way, because the U.S is more strict on the Statue of Secrecy than any other country in the world, so it had to be something that wouldn't cause a potential exposure to muggles."

Tony quirked a brow, "I keep hearing you say that word, muggles?" Harry nodded, "it's what we call people without magic, at least back home, here the magical community calls them No-Maj; no magic."

Tony shook his head in disbelief, "your world sounds strange," he commented, Harry chuckled, "it can be. Mostly it's just backwards, but we've spent a long time working on that, there's a lot more equal ground these days than there used to be 10-15 years ago."

Harry flicked off the main lights, "come upstairs, there's something I want to talk too you about," Harry beckoned, Tony climbed to his feet, watching in amazement as she flicked her hand at his mug and plate, they were both sparkling clean in an instant and put themselves away.

Tony shook his head, "that's so strange," Harry chuckled lightly, "it's about to get stranger," she promised, heading up the stairs to her apartment, Tony following one step behind.

After situating him on the couch, she disappeared down the hall, Tony could hear the sounds of a door opening and her rummaging around inside the room, before retuning with a very old and incredibly heavy looking stack of four books.

"This is definitely a no-no in my world, but since you now know about magic, and I trust you to keep this secret, there's some stuff I'd like you to read." She dropped the books down on the coffee table with a heavy thump.

"History of magic?" Tony questioned lifting up the first book, Harry nodded, "this was our first year text book for History of Magic class, it delves a lot into the Goblin wars, our teacher; professor Binns, was a huge Goblin war enthusiast; probably because he lived through one of them."

Harry reached a hand up, tucking a strand of loose hair back behind her ears, "there's some good stuff in there too, about how we ended up going into hiding, key points in the creation of our government, some examples of laws, and key players in history."

She reached over for the second book, handing it over to him, "this one is The Rise and Fall of The Dark Arts, it has history on dark witches and wizards; most notably The Dark Lord Grindelwald, he caused a lot of problems during world war two. Voldemort is in there too, not his real history, who he started out as, but the history of his campaign from the time he first attacked all the way to his eventual end; I'm mentioned in there as well."

Tony flipped through the book in interest, "this one is Hogwarts; A history, Hermione swears by it." Harry laughed, "she always had her nose stuck in a book, but none more so than this one. It details the creation of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the school rules, the school song, and little tidbits of information about certain parts of the school."

She waited for him to finish looking through them, listening to his interested ha's and hum's before softly clearing her throat. "This one is what I wanted to talk to you about," she said. Tony set aside the other books, and reached for the last one she held out.

"Legilimency; the art of mind reading?" He looked up at her sharply, Harry sighed quietly, bracingly. "Legilimens are witches and wizards who are either born with, or have learnt the practice of reading another's thoughts, it's not as common as it sounds, it takes a lot of self-discipline and mental training to accomplish." She explained.

"Legilimency has a counter part called Occlumency, which is the practice of protecting your mind, building mental shields and traps that prevent a legilimens from reading your thoughts; seeing your memories. Occlumency can also help you sort and categorize your mental space." She finished, looking at him intently.

"I told you earlier today, I have never lied to you, I won't start now. I am an accomplished occlumens, and I'm very proficient at legilimency. Voldemort was also very skilled in both practices as well." Harry bit her lip in hesitation.

"Back in…oh, it would've been '93 or '94, there was a news segment on the telly about a man named Sirius Black, he was a criminal convicted of killing thirteen people, he'd escaped from a maximum security prison and was considered highly dangerous."

Tony frowned in thought, he'd have been in his early twenties then, caught up in booze and women and many other things, but even he could recall seeing the gaunt face of a man in a newspaper when he'd been in the U.K round that time establishing a Stark Industries office in central London.

"What the nonmagical world hadn't been told for obvious reasons was that Sirius Black was a wizard, and he'd escaped from the Wizarding prison; Azkaban. But, he was innocent. I learned the truth about him in my third year at school, I was thirteen, and everyone believed he was a Death Eater, a follower of Voldemort's, he'd been friends with my dad, best friends even; like brothers." Harry took a deep shuddering breath.

"Those who were in charge back then thought he'd been the one to sell my parents out to Voldemort, they were wrong, and Sirius went after the true culprit only to get framed for mass murder and locked up without a trial." She carried on quietly.

"Even though we learned the truth, it wouldn't have been enough, we had no proof. So the real killer escaped and Sirius had to go on the lamb….He was my Godfather." Harry choked out, tears springing to her eyes, the memory of Sirius playing in her mind like a film with no sound.

"We only got to know each other for barely two years, Dumbledore said it was a short cruel end to what should've been a long and happy relationship. I blamed myself for what happened, Voldemort was after something, something kept locked up in the Ministry of Magic, an artefact, that only he or I could touch. And when he couldn't get it on his own, he used legilimency to plant these thoughts and visions into my head." Harry swallowed tightly, the burn of her throat stinging unbearably.

"He made me see Sirius, made me believe that he'd captured Sirius and was holding him, was torturing him, and I panicked, and I didn't think, and I rushed in to save him, only to walk right into a trap." She sobbed desperately, burying her face in her hands.

"We were met by Death Eaters, and eventually Voldemort himself, and Sirius came to rescue me, and he paid for my mistakes with his life. I was fifteen, and he was dead." She cried, "and I watched it happen! He smiled at me, and then he was gone."

It took several minutes for her gut wrenching sobs to die down, before she could calmly speak again, "so I know what the price is of having someone mess around in your head, play with your fears and make you see things that aren't real."

She bit back another sob, "Sirius had given me a special mirror, one that I could use any time to contact him, and these visions that Voldemort stuck inside my head; they drove me mad, and I forgot all about that mirror, I broke into a teacher's office to illegally call him through the fireplace, but there was a traitor in our midst that made me believe Sirius was gone."

She tilted her head to look up at Tony, "I didn't use the mirror," she whispered, "I left school property with a group of friends; fellow D.A members, I endangered their lives, lead them straight to Death Eaters, got them all severely injured; a few them almost died! And Sirius did die, murdered before my very eyes by his own cousin; the Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange, and it all happened because I believed what I was seeing in my head and in my dreams was real; and I didn't use the mirror."

Tony remained silent, unable to form words to her story, the similarity was gruesomely remarkable in certain aspects, between her Godfather and Ultron, both of the circumstances were the results of choices made by someone else's hands.

"But I can't blame myself for it anymore, yes it was my decision that lead to it all going down the way it had, but it was ultimately Voldemort's fault. A man so greedy, and so cruel and malicious, and all things horrible in this world, that you could no longer call him a man; didn't care about the consequences of his own actions, just cared about his own ambitions and goals. He was the one who planted these visions in my head, and those visions made me do what I did, Sirius' death was not entirely my fault. Just like Ultron wasn't entirely yours."

She gestured to the book, "read this and learn it well, I want you to have all the facts, so you can make an informed decision. Because the cost of someone else's desires goes deeper than you know." She said, "the mind is a very special place, and very private, it belongs to us and only us."

Harry stated firmly, "but, once you've learned everything in that book, then with your permission I would like to enter your mind." Tony stilled, not knowing how he felt about that, "what do you mean enter my mind?" He finally asked after a lengthy pause.

"I believe that whatever Wanda did, whatever she put into your head, it's still there. I don't think your nightmares are an after shock, I think they're happening because what she did is still affecting you; still active inside your mind." Harry explained, "it's just a theory, but it's a working one, I can use legilimency to enter your mind and isolate the abnormality she put in there, and hopefully erase it."

Tony glanced up hopefully at that, "you can get rid of it?" He asked in whisper, a part of himself desperate to believe her, Harry nodded haltingly, "it's a theory, but from the way you describe her powers, it sounds like she possesses an element of magic; crude and archaic, but still magic, and synthetic magic doesn't hold a candle to natural magic. If it's in there, yes; I can get rid of it."

She finally said confidently, and Tony felt something in him shift at her words, like a weight he didn't know he'd been carrying had been lifted from his body, and it felt good. He clutched the book in his hands tightly, holding onto it as if he was adrift at sea and it was his only lifeline.

Harry gave a tired sigh, "that was a little intense," she murmured, "I haven't spoken about Sirius in years," Tony hummed in agreement, "I don't really talk about Jarvis all that much, either Edwin or my boy Jarvis."

Harry tossed him a sad sideways smile, "what a pair we are," she laughed softly, "two peas in a pod." She suddenly stood to her feet, walking around the coffee table to the decorative shelving unit that was just beside her front door and rummaging on the shelves until she pulled out a thin case.

Harry turned and walked over to the living room window, cracking it an inch or so open and settling on the couch under it, deftly lighting a cigarette.

"I didn't know you smoked," Tony commented casually, eyeing her curiously. There was something off about what she was smoking though, it didn't smell like any cigarette he'd ever smelled before.

The scent was sweet, and a little fruity, like mixed berries coated in whipped cream, "these aren't your normal cigarettes, in fact they aren't even cigarettes at all." Harry explained, bringing Tony out of his thoughts.

"I uh," Harry released a deep breath, "I have nightmares, I've mentioned before the dead live in my dreams." Tony nodded, listening intently, "after the war they got worse, nameless faces haunting my nights, blaming me for their untimely ends," She took a deep drag, exhaling sweet smelling smoke out the crack of the window.

"Being at Hogwarts helped, back when I was teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts, but when I quit, I didn't have the routine, and the distractions, and they got worse. I uh, went a little mad." She admitted, "began getting into things I shouldn't have just so I didn't have to see those faces when I slept."

She sighed heavily, "in my world, there's a potion called ambrosia," she swallowed thickly, "I was 26 and at a party and some people busted it out, and I figured why not? Live a little; I liked it, I liked it a little too much, it took everything away, it made me feel warm and fuzzy and I didn't think, and I didn't see the faces in my dreams."

Silent tears began falling down her face, "I didn't know the dangers of continued and prolonged use, and I didn't tell anyone what I had been going through, it wasn't that I was ashamed, it was that I couldn't. Because, there was still a small childish part of myself that didn't want to believe in the horror I lived."

She wiped her tears with the back of her hand, even as more fell, "I kept my mouth shut, and in private I took ambrosia, the thing is, after a while ambrosia puts you in a state of being that keeps you complacent. I was so blissed out on the stuff that I'd just lay on my bed for hours, wouldn't do anything else."

She took a few shuddering breaths, "I was so languid, I lost an alarming amount of weight in under a month, I mean I wouldn't eat. I wouldn't sleep, I'd just lay on the bed and watch the colours all day."

She paused, licking her lips and clearing her throat, "I was killing myself," she whispered quietly, an admittance of guilt that wrecked her to her core. "I did it, because all my life I had been in some sort of danger, my bedroom was a cupboard under the stairs, when it wasn't then I had bars on my window, my entire childhood was spent in a prison."

She took another drag, "and when I got free, I was in instant danger, Voldemort had a follower in the school when I was 11, my first year and I still remember what it felt like to have his hands around my throat. My second year, I had to face down a 60 foot long, giant deadly snake, and I almost died! Then Sirius, and I was face to face with these creatures that suck every bit of happiness from you, then the Tri-Wizard tournament and Cedric, and I couldn't help because I was tied to a tombstone. Then that mad teacher tortures students with a blood quill and I still have the reminder on my hand!"

Harry lifted up her right hand, showing the back of it, Tony squinted in the light and faintly written on the back of her hand, in old scars was 'I must not tell lies'.

"Then Dumbledore died, and I thought someone we trusted had betrayed us and I was so wrong! And then war came, and Dobby died in my arms!" Harry suddenly burst into harsh tears, shoulders shaking with the force of her sobs.

"I couldn't save him! He was a house elf, and he was my friend and he saved me when I needed it, and I couldn't save him, he died in my arms, and his last words was my name!" Harry yelled in complete and utter anguish.

"To live through that, and be okay? Not possible, I wasn't okay, I hadn't been for a long time. And I didn't tell anyone what I was feeling" she continued brokenly, sucking in great gulps of air, "I kept it all in, and I got addicted to a potion so I wouldn't have to feel anymore, and I didn't tell anyone, and it was Ron that found me passed out, and I felt so ashamed."

Harry sobbed, "because I let that happen; I let one of my dearest friends, my brother, see me like that, because I didn't tell anyone that I was hurting. He shouldn't have seen me like that, shouldn't have had to bring me to the hospital!"

Harry cried for several more minutes, "I had to go through detox, and finally I told them all, I told them everything, and my Healer…Doctor, sorry, he prescribes me these," Harry held up the finished cigarette.

"It's not tobacco, it's a magical plant that's been grown in special potion treated soil, they help deal with anxiety and depression, and with the effects of PTSD." She said quietly, "rather than take three or five different medicated potions everyday, I smoke two of these a day, usually one when I wake up, and one just before I go to bed."

Harry flicked the remains of the cigarette out the window, watching it slowly burn up on the sill. "I caused a lot of panic with what I did, it took me a full year under a strictly monitored nutrition program to gain back the weight I'd lost, and now I go to therapy once a week, I only take Dreamless sleep twice a week if even that. I'm doing better," she said with a watery smile, "but it still kills me inside, what I let happen. No one really cared when I was a kid, the Durlsey's never came to comfort me if I had a nightmare, and they never once asked me if I was okay, I got used to the idea that no one cared, and even after I knew that was wrong, that people did care. I still wouldn't talk about anything."

Tony stood, moving the books off to the side, he inched his way towards her, sitting down by her side, he didn't say anything, he just wrapped an arm around her and pulled her to his side, holding onto her, offering what silent comfort he could.

He knew what it was like, he'd been there too, in this they were united, in this; they were exactly the same.

Several hours later, he still held onto her, her tiny frame curled into his side. He glanced down, surprised to see she'd fallen asleep, and he couldn't help but smile at the peaceful expression on her face. He continued to hold onto her, eventually falling into sleep himself, and when they woke the next morning, no words were said, no words needed to be said.

They shared breakfast, and Happy came to pick him up, she saw them both off with on the go coffees and a grateful smile in his direction. When he returned home, he locked himself in his lab, and began reading the books she'd leant him. He held onto the promise of them, just as tightly as he had held onto her.


End file.
